:: Running from the Thought Police ::

:: Monday, November 08, 2004 ::

The Facts On Social Security "Privitisation"

Basically, it won't work, it opens up huge fraud opportunities, and if you privatize it you'll end up having to recreate it when the private funds fall through - if you listen to Atrios, at least, which most sane people should.

First off, anyone with a liberal bent knows that privitization wouldn't be funded - you take millions of people out of the current pay-as-you-go Social Security system, put their money, or part of it, into "private accounts" that are government managed, and still expect to pay our current seniors their full benefits. It can't work - you can't pay people the same amount and reduce revenue into the system. Then again, this bunch doesn't care if they do deficit spending - their kids have tons of money anyway and won't mind the higher taxes it'll cause five or ten years down the line.

Atrios brings up a couple new points. First off, he digs up a piece in which major mutual fund firms say that under the current system such small-dollar accounts would have high administrative costs and therefore be unprofitable - so basically your money would earn nothing while it sat there. Atrios also points out that brokerage firms aren't the most trustworthy of companies anyway, and have yet to merit the trust of the entire nation's retirement savings.

Then there's Atrios' favorite flogging horse on the issue, that people are going to start wanting to treat their private account just like any other savings account and the gov't will likely end up letting them. Then they'll squander the money and end up old, poor, and destitute, which was what the Social Security system was designed to prevent in the first place.

:: The Squire 9:09 AM :: email this post :: ::
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