I received a response to a blog I wrote on Feb 5th concerning Social Security. In this response I was pointed to the following URL: http://www.spokesmanreview.com/chat/transcript.asp?id=61. At this site a Prof from E.Washington U discusses SS.
I enjoy looking at different takes on this subject so I read most of the article. If I wrote all the things that I disagreed with, this blog would be much too long to hold anyones attention, so I will hold it down to a couple of observations.
First, Mr Orr received his MA from the University of Colorado a few years after I graduated from there. He then stayed on to get his PhD. After all that has gone on at CU in the last few months with Ward Churchill, I am tempted to say..."I rest my case". What do you expect from a guy that studies at an institution such as CU? I can tell you from experience of going there in the 60's, having family living in Boulder (Peoples Republic of) and having a daughter who graduated from there, CU could easily be called the Berkley of the Rocky Mountains! Now he teaches at a school in one of the most liberal areas of the country.
As is typical of the majority of people against the reform of SS, this guy has little to say other than, let's do nothing! He calls SS an insurance system. If I am not mistaken, this is not the intent back in the 30's when the thing was created.
He thinks that private accounts would allow people to loose all their money unless they were an expert in the markets. I say, make it a requirement that only indexed funds be allowed. Or, for that matter, continue to put the money in T Notes, but with MY NAME ON THE T NOTE!
Even Chris Rock in his ranting has stated that SS is a scam for Blacks in this country because the average life span of a Black man is only 57. He is wrong on the life span (it is 67), but he has a point. Blacks put their money into SS for 35 years only to, on average, die before they even get to use it. And their families get no benefit other than the small death benefit.
He wants to fund SS with another tax increase on the RICH! Did you know that if pressed, the Libs will admit that they consider rich to be family income over $60,000 a year. How about that all you 2 teacher families making $80,000! I bet you never thought you were one of the evil rich in this country. Of course you teachers don't need to worry about SS, you have a private pension that has been doing just fine, thank you, invested in the stock market!!!
OK lets tax the really wealthy. You know, the guys and gals that make the really big money. You know Socialism! Robin Hood and all that good stuff.....does this all sound familiar?
He ignores the demographics of the Baby Boomers hitting the retirement age in a couple of years or so. His answer, well, increased productivity has taken care of this 16 to 1 gong to 3 to 1 thing. Yea, sure, why, even the libs in Congress have admitted that this is going to be a huge problem.
Orr says that Bush lied about accounts being guaranteed a better return. I am tired of these folks always using hyperbole in describing anything Bush does. I'm surprised he didn't accuse him of some Naziism. As I have stated in past discussions, it sure will not be hard to achieve a better return than what SS provides now. Particularly when you consider it is all gone when you die as the system is now..
This is much too long as it is. Nobody is going to want to read this thing, so I will end for now. Just remember, when you hear a one sided story on this very important thing, when a guy like Orr says do nothing, then head for the exit.
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7 comments:
Maggie;
Paul Krugman is a well known Democrat hack who writes for the NY Times. He is a Bush hater and when confronted with errors in his logic, brushes them off as if only he knows the right answer. He has never agreed with anything Bush has said or done and never will.
As you know, I could come up with many economists that would support my side. This type of argument is unproductive.
All I ask is you use your own intuition on the thing. Right now the Government takes in $$ from you and everyone who works. They pay out a portion to the current SS beneficiaries. The extra they put in the general fund and spend it on other current expenses!. They DO NOT save a dime of this extra money to pay for your benefits down the road.
They say they have a "Trust Fund". They don't! they buy Treasuries with this extra money. But who gets the money when the Treasuries get purchased? The Government does! This is what the IOU is that they talk of. These Treasury's are NOT in our names.
What would be so bad if the extra money they take in would actually be placed in a Treasury payable to Maggie? If these Treasuries are safe enough for the Government to hold for future retirees, then why are they not safe enough for each of us individually? That is all that privatization is. Perhaps the compromise is to place our FICA into private accounts that can only be made up of Treasuries with our own names on them. A real, honest to goodness, trust fund!
As far as your comment about the poor. All Bush is saying is that the working poor will benefit from this. The wealthy in this country save money outside of SS. They will not suffer if Social Security goes down the tube. They have their IRA's and their Pensions and their Stocks.
This is a way of making sure the working poor benefit from their hard earned wages of which 12% goes to FICA. And they may never see any of this money. Just like I said, the life expectancy of the average Black person in this country is such that they receive very little benefit. What is wrong with the notion that these people can have an asset that they could give to their kids when they die?
I would submit that the majority of the people against this (other than the Democrats who are afraid of loosing their hold on the retirement community) are those who lean towards socialism. They just want the "Rich" to pay. Who ever they are. As it is, the Rich pay into SS and only receive a small fraction of what they put in.
Very few people in this country actually get out what they put in. Only the Poor have this occur. I do not know where the break-even point is, but it is lower than you think. It is probably less than $50,000/yr people. People like Krugman want the top SS wage to go above $90k per year. Of course he does, this is the socialist way. Not one dollar those people will add to the program will come back to them. And this may be OK to a certain extent. But it already is hugely progressive as it is now.
You probably agree with this way of doing business because you probably are of similar mind. But I contend that the country would be much better off if the Government was not able to spend that extra money that comes in, and that all citizens would gain wealth by personally owning the share they put away into SS.
By the way, I don't have a dog in this fight. I would not benefit from private accounts as I am too old and in addition, I have been a saver all my life and would not be hurt if the whole system went down the tubes. I do, however, have kids who would benefit. And I also have a genuine desire to have this great country be as strong as it possibly can.
Back to school. I think it's time for me to go back to school again.
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