Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have been a writer since I was a small child. One of the things I most wanted for Christmas, one year, was a toy typewriter. I got it, and I could actually type on it. It had only one key to push down on, but it had a print wheel with all the letters on it. If you wanted to type the letter “q,” you just turned the wheel until the “q” was in the print position, and then pushed down on the large single key. I was so proud to see my words in print that I gave that little toy typewriter a good workout. Once I had seen my words in print, I knew that I would be a writer all my life.
I also had an equally strong passion for studying about the economy. Our family was the poorest family in the whole community. The old weathered farmhouse that we lived in showed no evidence that it had ever been painted. We didn’t have electricity, so I had to do my homework in the dim light of a kerosene lamp. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that we also did not have indoor plumbing. I remember so well those trips to the outhouse when the temperature was below zero and having to use pages from an old Sears catalog for toilet paper. Those Indiana winters were severe, and trips to that old outhouse are still among the most vivid negative memories that I have.
I was puzzled by how poor we were and how well off so many others were. Dad worked hard on that little Indiana farm, but he and Mom just had too many babies to make it on so little income. Growing up, I never thought there would be any way that I could go to college, but President Eisenhower changed all of that when he signed into law the National Defense Education Act, which opened the door to low-interest loans for college students. After working and borrowing my way through Ball State University, I taught high school social studies for two years before borrowing my way through four years of graduate school at Indiana University to earn a Ph.D. degree in economics.
I share these things to help readers understand why I have felt a responsibility to use much of my writing talent and time for writing about Economics and Social Security. But before I get into that, please allow me to tell you about what I like to write.
I love to do inspirational writing in an attempt to lift people’s spirits. On July 14, 1994. I tried a little experiment. I wrote a short inspirational essay and submitted it to a small weekly newspaper in Toledo, Illinois. I was trying to determine whether or not I had the ability to inspire people through my writing.
I had always loved meaningful quotations, so I decided to begin the essay with an inspirational quotation, which would set the tone for the piece. If my memory is correct, I used the following quotation from Helen Keller to set the tone for that first essay.
“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.”
The editor liked the essay and asked me to write a similar column every week. But I wondered how long I would be able to write weekly columns without losing my ability to inspire. That was nineteen years ago, and my column still appears in that little paper, a thousand miles from where I now live, every week. Over the years, the column appeared in larger papers for at least a few years. The Paducah Sun in Paducah, Kentucky ran the column in their Sunday paper, on the religion page, for many years. Other papers ran it on their editorial page.
As time passed and I became so involved in my other writing, I decided to phase the column out. I quit recruiting new subscribers and decided that I would continue to supply it to those papers still using it until they all dropped the column. It will be twenty years next July since I published that first column in the Toledo, Illinois paper. In addition to that paper, the column still appears every week in two small Arizona newspapers, one in Tennesse and one in Virginia.
I have written a number of non-fiction books about economics and Social Security. My high school textbook, Understanding Economics, which was published by Random House, was used in more than 600 schools, nationwide. I also wrote a layman’s book entitled, Demystifying Economics: The Book That Makes Economics Accessible to Everyone.
For the past thirteen years, I have been engaged in a relentless campaign to expose the Social Security fraud. While doing research for a book in 2000, I stumbled onto what I now consider to be the “greatest fraud ever perpetrated against the American people by their own government.”
President Reagan, with the assistance of Alan Greenspan, convinced Congress and the American people that there was a need for a big Social Security payroll tax increase in 1983, which would generate surplus revenue for the next 30 years, in order to build up a large reserve with which to help fund the retirement of the baby boomers, who would begin retiring in 2010. That payroll tax hike generated $2.7 trillion in surplus revenue over the period 1983 to 2010, when the annual surpluses came to an end and permanent annual Social Security deficits began.
That $2.7 trillion in surplus Social Security revenue was supposed to have been saved and invested in marketable U.S. Treasury bonds, which could be resold when needed to raise cash for paying benefits to the boomers. But none of the surplus Social Security money was saved or invested in anything. The government simply took the surplus revenue and deposited it in the general revenue fund. The money has been used to pay for unfunded wars and other programs. This is the big fraud that I stumbled onto in 2000. At first, I refused to believe my findings. It seemed just too awful to suggest that the government was using Social Security money for other programs. But it didn’t take much more research to remove all doubt. The government was actually stealing Social Security money and using it for other purposes.
On March 16, 2011, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) admitted that the government had stolen Social Security money during a Senate speech. He said:
“Congresses under both Republican and Democrat control, both Republican and Democrat presidents, have stolen money from social security and spent it. The money’s gone. It’s been used for another purpose.”
Every member of Congress knows that what Senator Coburn said was absolutely true. But very few average Americans have a clue that their Social Security contributions were stolen by the government and used for other purposes. I have devoted the past 13 years of my life to trying to expose the fraud against overwhelming odds. The AARP and the NCPSSM have both marched in lockstep with the Social Security Administration in misleading the public about the true status of the Social Security trust fund. The government has managed to keep the public from finding out about the theft for more than three decades. Since neither the Republicans nor the Democrats want the truth reported, because they both are guilty of actions that they don’t want the news media to report. The news media honors the government’s wishes to keep the story from being reported.
My first book reporting this fraud, The Alleged Budget Surplus, Social Security and Voodoo Economics, was published in 2000, and I appeared on CNN, in September of that year, to discuss it. I published three more books on Social Security in the years that followed, but the most complete picture of what has happened is presented in my new Kindle book, THE IMPENDING SOCIAL SECURITY CRISIS: The Government’s Big Dirty Secret. It is available at Amazon.com
http://amzn.com/B00CRTJM6K
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is entitled, “THE IMPENDING SOCIAL SECURITY CRISIS: The Government’s Big Dirty Secret.”
The inspiration for writing this book came from a chance discovery I made in 2000. That chance discovery was also the inspiration for my four previous books on the subject. For thirteen years, I have been trying to expose the great Social Security theft, which I now consider to be the greatest fraud ever perpetrated against the American people by their own government.
The story dates back to 1981. President Reagan had gotten himself and the government into big trouble with his huge, unaffordable income tax cuts, and the federal budget was out of control. Exploding deficits caused the national debt to double from $1 trillion in 1981 to $2 trillion five years later. Supply-side economics and his huge tax cuts were not working out the way Reagan had promised they would. Reagan needed a new source of revenue.
Reagan appointed Alan Greenspan to head up the Commission for Social Security Reform. Greenspan, Reagan, and members of the Reagan administration came up with the perfect solution to their problem. All they had to do was to scare the public into believing that Social Security was in deep trouble in 1981, and then trick them into supporting a big increase in Social Security payroll taxes, which would generate large surpluses for the next 30 years.
So a plan to deliberately fool the public into believing that a Social Security payroll tax increase was needed, at a time when Social Security would not face major financial problems until the baby boomers retired 30 years down the road, was set into motion. And, once the Commission released it report and recommendations, the legislation was rushed through Congress and signed into law.
Reagan began his strategy with two letters that he wrote to Congressional leaders. In his letter dated May 21, 1981, Reagan wrote: “
“As you know, the Social Security System is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.”
Reagan’s portrayal of Social Security as being on the “edge of bankruptcy” was blatantly untrue. The program could have used some tiny, short-term tweaks, but Social Security was fundamentally sound for the next 30 years.
Two months later, on July 18, 2001, President Reagan sent a second letter to Congress, emphasizing the urgency of the problem. Reagan wrote:
“The highest priority of my administration is restoring the integrity of the Social Security system…In order to tell the American people the facts, and to let them know that I shall fight to preserve the Social Security system and protect their benefits, I will ask for time on television to address the nation as soon as possible…I will call on the Congress to lay aside partisan politics, and join me in a constructive effort to put Social Security on a permanently sound financial basis…”
Social Security was not “teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.” in 1981, and Social Security was certainly not Reagan’s “highest priority.” Reagan had never been a friend of Social Security and his highest priority was to downsize all social programs. The only red flag on the horizon for Social Security was that there would be trouble when the baby boomers began to retire 30 years down the road.
President Reagan instilled fear into the American people, especially those who were retired or nearing retirement. Many Americans undoubtedly began to fear that those Social Security checks, which they depended on so much for their livelihood, might be in jeopardy.
Social Security was not “teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.” in 1981, and Social Security was certainly not Reagan’s “highest priority.” Reagan had never been a friend of Social Security and his highest priority was to downsize all social programs. The only red flag on the horizon for Social Security was that there would be trouble when the baby boomers began to retire 30 years down the road.
Reagan’s scare tactics worked. Congress passed the Social Security Amendments of 1983, which included a hefty increase in the payroll tax rate. The tax increase was designed to generate large Social Security surpluses for the next 30 years. The public was led to believe that the money would be saved and invested in marketable U.S. Treasury Bonds, which could later be resold to raise cash with which to pay benefits to the boomers. But that didn’t happen. The money was all deposited directly into the general fund and used for non-Social Security purposes. Reagan spent every dime of the surplus revenue that came in on general government operations. His successor, George H.W. Bush used the surplus money as a giant slush fund. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush did the same thing. So we can’t blame the whole problem on Reagan. He just figured out how to steal the money from Social Security and his successors followed in his footsteps.
The $2.7 trillion that is supposed to be in the trust fund was all spent for wars, tax cuts for the rich, and other government programs. If the money is repaid at some point in the future, we could say is was just “borrowed.” But no arrangements have been made to repay the money, and nobody in government is suggesting that the money should be repaid. So, if it is never repaid, the money will definitely have been stolen.
Every member of Congress, the President, and all other top officials know that the above facts are true. However only a few members of the public have even a clue that the $2.7 trillion that is supposed to be in the trust fund is gone. It has been spent for other things, and the IOUs have no monetary value. Both Republicans and Democrats are equally guilty, and, if the whole truth were to be made public, many political careers would be destroyed. That is why probably the one policy goal that Republicans and Democrats most agree on is the need to keep the public from finding out about the Social Security theft. The public has both a right and a need to know the truth. That is why, for the past thirteen years, I have contributed most of my time, and more than $40,000 of personal money, to the effort to expose the fraud.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know that my writing habits are particularly unusual. I do most of my writing in my head, so when I sit down to the keyboard the words usually flow faster than I can type them. Ideas seem to pop into my head unexpectedly, and most of my writing comes from those unsolicited ideas. I don’t think I have ever had writers block in the way that it is usually defined. The words always seem to come but they may or may not be the right words. I think the primary reason that I don’t have writers block is because I write mostly non-fiction. However, I have written three children’s novels, (all unpublished) and the words flowed pretty well during those endeavors. The inspirational essays seem to write themselves. I start with an inspirational quotation to set the tone, and the words just seem to come. I have recently published a collection of 77 inspirational essays as a Kindle book with the title “Thought Boosters”. If it is successful, I may publish other collections.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Phyllis Whitney was an inspiration to me. I read several of her adult novel and some of her children’s novels. I also studied her book on how to write for children intensely.
What are you working on now?
I am writing still another book about the Social Security fraud.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have just recently decided to spend more time on promotion. Tom Corson Knowles’ books have given me a lot of good information as well as a great deal of inspiration. I have also been distributing press releases through Webwire.com for $24.99.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I have a lot of advice for new authors. I am now seventy-five years old, and I’ve seen a lot of changes in the writing world over the years. First of all, you must love being a writer, and you must have a lot of patience, persistence and perseverance to stand any chance of success. These are prerequisites to launching a writing career. If you don’t have them and don’t have the self-discipline to develop them, you don’t have what it takes to be a writers.
If you have all these traits, you have a chance at being successful, but not a guarantee. Always keep in mind Murphy’s Law. “If anything can go wrong, it will.” And there is no such thing as a “sure thing”. I have been on the verge of having a big success three times during my lifetime. The first time was in 1986, the second time was was in 2005, and the time was last year. In all three cases. Murphy’s Law had the final say.
I published my first book, “Understanding Inflation and Unemployment,” in 1976. It became an alternate selection of Fortune Book Club and I hoped that it might be successful. It was successful in the sense that it remained in print for many years, and you can still buy it from Amazon.com 37 years later. I just checked and Amazon has a new hardcover for $84.90 cents (The original list price was $8.95.) and a used paperback for $4.90. It makes me feel good to know that a book I published 37 years ago is still available. But my total earnings on that book were less than $3,000.
Ten years later, I reached the pinnacle of success when Random House published my high school textbook, “Understanding Economics.” It was used in more than 600 schools in 48 states. It was adopted by Miami , Tampa, Orlando, and most other Florida schools. It was adopted by the Atlanta schools and all the schools in the county around Atlanta, as well as most other schools in the state. It was rated the best high school economics textbook on the market by a study conducted by Georgia State University. And no other book came close to achieving its high rank. My editor at Random House said, “Allen, this book is going to make you rich. It is so good that it will stay in print for a very long time.” During the first two years, I received $100,000 in royalty payments on the book. I was on top of the world. It seemed like a sure thing to me. The teachers and students loved the book, and more and more schools were offering courses in economics. I thought I would be making revisions on the book as long as I was alive, and then I assumed the publisher would find another economist to become co-author who would continue to revise it. I was extremely proud of my brainchild. And then catastrophe struck! I received a call from my Random House editor informing me that Random House had sold its school division to McGraw-Hill. She said she though the new publisher would continue with my book but she couldn’t be sure. A few month’s later my editor called again, and this time she warned me that I should sit down because she had more bad news. She said that McGraw-Hill which had been buying up lots of small publishers had just merged with MacMillan who had also been buying up small publisher. The big conglomerate ended up with eight economic textbooks. They decided to kill off seven of them, and mine was one of the seven. They even admitted to me that they had never even looked at my book before issuing the death sentence. I hired a lawyer but he couldn’t do much for me. He worked out an agreement under which I gave up my right to sue the publisher. In exchange, they reverted the publishing rights to the book back to me.
I set up my own small publishing company–Ironwood Publications–in 1996 and became a self-publisher before it was fashionable to do so. I was able to take material from the Random House book and publish it myself. I have had mixed success as a self-publisher. I’m certainly not the millionaire my Random House editor predicted I would become if Random House had continued to publish my book.
In 2004 a New York publisher published my explosive book, “The Looting of Social Security: How the Government Is Draining America’s Retirement Account.” The book received powerful pre-publication reviews from both ALA Booklist and the Boston Globe. It started out selling well with an early decision to go back to press for more books.
But then catastrophe struck again. I began getting telephone calls asking why the book was not in bookstores. I began calling bookstores around the country and soon discovered that the book had been pulled from bookstores throughout the country and Amazon.com listed the book as “unavailable.” Someone had decided that the American people should not read that book. It was shortly before George W. Bush launched his campaign to partially privatize Social Security. It would have been “INCONVENIENT” for the public to have such a book available at the very time that Bush was trying to privatize the program. I don’t know who actually pulled the trigger on the assassination of my book, but there are many suspects. I probably played a role in the pulling of the book. A few weeks before the book disappeared, I had appeared on CNBC morning news as one of two invited guests to respond to Alan Greenspan who had called for cuts in Social Security the previous day. I used the opportunity to hold my book in front of the camera as I said. “Alan Greenspan should be ashamed of himself for what he is not telling the American people. I then criticized the Bush tax cuts. So I probably drove the final nail into the coffin of my book with that appearance on CNBC.
The incident that happened last year involved a top literary agent in New York. I sent him a proposal for my book “The Impending Social Security Crises.” He was very excited, at first, about the prospective book. I worked with him for six months, thinking he would be able to place the book with a top publisher at a good advance. He showed no reservations about the content of the book when I first submitted it to him. Gradually he seemed to get cold feet about including so much criticism of government and politicians. He said that he thought two chapters about the “looting of Social Security” was more than enough, and he wanted the rest of the book to be about other aspects of Social Security. The two-chapter version soon became a one-chapter versions. He said we didn’t need to cover so much history of the government’s wrong doing over the past 30 years. He wanted most of the book to be about other aspects of Social Security with only one chapter being devoted to what I call, “the great Social Security theft.” I continued to try to be flexible, because I knew this agent could place the book with a major publisher. I continued to water the book down until there was no book left about the looting of Social Security. We finally reached the point where he said we should devote only five pages in the first chapter to the controversial material. The book he was excited about in the beginning was going to expose all the fraud and criminal activity with regard to Social Security. Apparently he talked to people who advised him against getting involved with such a book. At any rate, I thanked him for his effort and decided to self-publish the book with Kindle under the title “The Impending Social Security Crisis: The Government’s Big Dirty Secret.” The Kindle book is now available, and I plan to put out a paper back edition of the book out soon.
You have to love writing to deal with the kind of problems I have experienced. But maybe I am just naturally unlucky. Maybe some new authors are immune to Murphy’s Law. But I seriously doubt it.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Be prepared for trouble, because it is a part of everybody’s life.
What are you reading now?
I am reading a lot of books about marketing.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I plan to write a book about Ayn Rand andI the radical right.
What is your favorite book of all time?
It is hard for me to single out a specific book, because there are so many good ones. But the book that had the biggest impact on my life is, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living,” by Dale Carnegie. That book literally changed my life many decades ago. Everybody should read it. It might change your life, too.
Author Websites and Profiles
Allen Smith Website