On Tue, Jan 04, 2005 at 12:01:56PM -0600, Gary Denton wrote: > For example, if the "price indexing" change is made, "a retiree in > 2075 would receive 54 percent of the benefits now promised."
No. A retiree in 2075 is just being born today or just a few years old at the most. Such a person has not been promised anything. Only people who pay into social security have an implied promise of benefits. > If this system had been in place since Social Security's inception, > people today would be retiring with a benefit tied to the living > standard of the 1930s, when 40 percent of households lacked indoor > plumbing. Straw man. Today the standard of living is quite comfortable. They are talking about indexing it to TODAY's standard of living, not 1930's. > THE DIRTY LITTLE SECRET OF PRIVATIZATION: Bush's plan for private > accounts is being sold as a plan for younger workers to benefit from > the higher returns of the stock market. Don't believe the hype. The dirty little secret of this shrill rant is that SOMEBODY has to pay, no matter what you do. These bozos pretend that people are somehow entitled to live like kings and that nobody has to pay for it. Don't believe the hype. You can pay more in taxes now (and force future generations to pay more in taxes later) and let the government mishandle your retirement savings, or you can pay less in taxes now, and save for retirement yourself. The government shouldn't be in the business of providing a complete retirement plan. The old age insurance portion of Social Security is a SAFETY NET -- it should guarantee a minimum level for people who can't or don't save enough to support themselves in their old age. It should NOT be expected to provide most or all of the retirement savings for most people. The current standard of living is more than sufficient to provide as a minimum level. Indexing to current cost of living is perfectly reasonable. > explains: "The bonds in the Social Security trust fund are obligations > of the federal government's general fund, the budget outside Social > Security. They have the same status as U.S. bonds owned by Japanese > pension funds and the government of China. Not quite. SS's bonds cannot be sold on the bond market. That means their value cannot be as accurately measured, since there is no market for them. > The general fund is legally obliged to pay the interest and principal > on those bonds, and Social Security is legally obliged to pay full > benefits as long as there is money in the trust fund." No doubt it will be paid. But how? Answer: by raising taxes, borrowing more money (thus pushing up interest rates) or starting up the printing press. All ways, you slow the economy. Not that the problem can be blamed entirely on SS (Bush should have been cutting spending along with his tax cuts), but SS will exacerbate the problem. Bad times are ahead. -- Erik Reuter http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
