This served the buyer well, as it would guarantee an amount spent and availability of the goods. The store selling on layaway would see the customer on a regular basis which builds habit buying for other product as well. The entire procedure would generally be seen as a Win-Win for the Store and the buyer both.

Win win, and also without the associated risks of credit, as is now the preferred method of purchasing.  Credit becoming a burden AFTER the purchase for the customer, and the merchant risks of fraud for the sellers, who under the layaway plan would not be releasing the product until after the final payment is made.  Risks mitigated by a bit more planning, and characterized by a time tested method of a free market's best trusted inventions to "swing a deal" so to speak.

Imagine if you will, the day that you would walk into your department store, and they shackle you to the layaway counter demanding you make your payment NOW.  Worse yet, you don't really want to buy what they are selling, but this is the only store in town, and some of the product it sells you need on a daily basis.  Pretty soon, you voluntarily open your wallet, and because you have so much invested already, it seems somewhat foolish to let your previous investments go to waste.

That is where we are at with the social security system.  Well... kinda

The years pass, your layaway is nearly paid for.  You've heard a rumor however.  It seems that in the store room, there has been a little shrinkage.  The product you thought you were "buying" might not be there..  That gift for your retirement that you had stashed away seems to be diminished somehow, and for some reason they don't want you to have it too early anymore.

Is it possible that the great big department store of government has lost your package?  Well..  it surely must be there because even now there are others who are able to pick their layaway up.  As you see them walk out of the store happy with their package, you see the smiles turn a little down as they realize they were carrying out a gift that has parts broken off and some completely missing. A return of an uncomfortable feeling comes over you as you realize you may not receive that for which you have paid dearly over time.

And then you begin to long for the days of dealing in a simple marketplace environment, where you could see what you were buying. You knew whom you were dealing with.  A place where if they changed the product before you got it, you could ask for a refund. How nice it would be to again have a mutually beneficial and respectful environment...  A free market.

There are few things that so clearly define the differences in the philosophies of the progressive left and true conservatism in government as Social Security.  What could have been devised in a more business centric manner, or rather a free marketplace enterprise for the safety net of our seniors became a convoluted money shuffle. A shuffle that allowed mismanagement which would have resulted in failure after failure in any business attempting it with similar money handling practices.

In Michigan, Granholm, the progressive left, and her national counterparts have consistently promoted the use of government to promote such "banking" of YOUR resources.  The investment in talent, subsidizing "green" endeavors, and hand picking future job producers through rewards, and entitlements. Failures of which, carry off the financial investment of our citizens, and are excused through suggestions we have not yet had enough time to see them work.

The ability of government to forcibly lay claim to your private property, relieves its occupants of any self restraint in its practices.  Ultimately, it gives license to control whether you live or die in comfort or some other form, at the whim of bureaucratic happenstance of any given time.  A constitutional atrocity, this "safety net" can be expected to eventually be neither safe, of have the ability to provide protection from a financial fall.