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February 17, 2005
I Repeat, There is No Crisis, But
The thing I didn't quite understand the first time around was that there is no cash in the social security trust fund. My current understanding is that in 15 years, demographics will force it to go into deficit spending. That's somewhat scary, but not that scary.
I have also recently happened upon the opinion which is swaying me a bit. Don't be opportunistic. See, Social Security was voted into being by another generation, and to the extent that it being broken forces my generation to do an expensive fix for the sake a generation too young to vote is like a shot in the dark. I don't particularly like the idea of locking down any legislation that manages trillions over generations. I didn't ask for it, and it's those damned Boomers who are swelling it into deficit spending.
Smart people who consider themselves part of the investor class have already discounted the value of Social Security. It's just a little bit of supplement, and nobody should have been so dependent on the Government's ability to provide retirement cash. So why should we depend on them to overhaul the program and make it more profitable? That's the core irony of this whole deal. Who could possibly win? Only people who depend on Social Security a lot more than real investors.
Now here's the rub. Like anybody, I'd much rather not pay the 6 odd percent of my gross paycheck to FICA. And there have been plenty of times when I beat the 90K cap so that I maxed out my annual contribution. So right around Halloween or Thanksgiving I get an extra 6% in my paycheck. Whoo hoo! But Bush's proposal is to raise that cap. So he's actually sucking wealthier people into paying more, therefore making us more interested to see that the FICA funds are earning us more. Isn't that called government dependency?
So basically I'm taking the conservative position that Bush is being wreckless, and I'll my position is to leave Social Security alone. This potato is too hot, and just like Gay Marriage, the sooner you try to deal with it, the more mess you make. Privatizing Social Security is like a constitutional amendment, it's big big. I don't trust anybody Bush has hired in the financial department, and we all know that Cato is behind much of this.
Now that I'm griping about domestic affairs rather that geopolitics, I'm thinking that this whole thing is about accounting tricks and not real reform. You want to talk about crisis, talk about health care. It's already getting outsourced.
We've already had quite enough ideological fervor here Mr. President. Cool your jets. You are not a great bureacratic reformer, so just leave it alone. We'll try again next election.
Posted by mbowen at February 17, 2005 08:46 PM
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Comments
You're right on point terming the current Social Security 'reform' overtures as a bunch of accounting tricks. Political leaders haven't been very straightforward with us -- the citizens -- on what Social Security is and its value.
Posted by: MIB at February 18, 2005 08:26 AM
I'm thinking that this whole thing is about accounting tricks and not real reform. You want to talk about crisis, talk about health care. It's already getting outsourced.
Welcome aboard.
Posted by: DarkStar at February 18, 2005 04:05 PM
Which bright star of the Democratic cosmos stated that Social Security isn't in crisis and won't be for another fifty years? So there's some kind of law that you can't fix something until a crisis is upon you? How dumb is that? My daughter will turn 18 next month. Sure, I want her to pay into SS all her working life and have nothing to show for it upon retirement. The only reason the kids aren't screaming about this is that they don't know what SS is and how it works so they don't realize how they're fixing to get screwed.
Posted by: Laura at February 18, 2005 07:19 PM