Economy
See other Economy Articles
Title: The right's smoke and mirrors scam about Social Security--it ain't broke (unless China is too)
Source:
Angry Bear
URL Source: http://www.angrybearblog.com/2011/1 ... ogspot%2FHzoh+%28Angry+Bear%29
Published: Nov 12, 2011
Author: Linda Beale
Post Date: 2011-11-13 09:11:13 by lucysmom
Keywords: None
Views: 15541
Comments: 28
The right's smoke and mirrors scam about Social Security--it ain't broke (unless China is too) We've noted in these postings the growing inequality between rich and the rest of us in America, and that is the appropriate backdrop against which to investigate further the right's smoke-and-mirrors scams about tax policy and earned benefits. Let me remind you with Kevin Drum's Mother Jones article on The Price of Plutocracy: "For all practical purposes, every year about $700 billion in income is being sucked directly out of the hands of the poor and the middle class and shoveled into the hands of the rich." (That sentence is illustrated with a great chart, with data drawn from Joseph Hacker of Yale and Paul Pierson of Berkeley, the authors of Winner-Take-All Politics, a book I highly recommend.) The national debate about deficits has been part of a relentless push by the right to reduce as much as possible the New Deal earned benefit programs of Social Security and Medicare. The right twists the facts to suit the arguments it wants to make... snip ...The right uses "personal responsibility" and "entitlements" as though they refer to two non-intersecting worlds, whereas in fact the opposite is true. Workers pay into Social Security to support current workers who paid into it in the past. The trust fund was established, and amended with a good deal of actuarial research under Reagan in 1983, with the knowledge that the baby boom generation would be passing through and create a bulge of benefit needs and that US birth rates tended to be smaller now than they were a century ago. In other words. what is happening now in terms of the baby boomer population reaching retirement age and the decline in US birthrates was exactly the information on which the Social Security changes made in the 1980s were predicated. Either we believe that these kinds of predictions are reasonable (in which case it is utterly silly to raise nightmare scenarioes about bankruptcy, because there is nothing of the sort) or we believe that it is impossible to predict for sure what will happen (in which case it is utterly silly to raise nightmare scenarios about Social Security bankruptcy, because GDP could grow just a little faster than predicted, easing all future problems, or boomer needs could grow just a little less than predicted, easing all future problems). Either way, the crisis-bell ringing being done by the right as a way to attribute deficits to Social Security is a smoke and mirrors scam. Angry Bear">Click for Full Text!
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 27.
#5. To: lucysmom (#0)
And that is a Ponzi scheme, and Ponzi scheme's always crash when more people are owed than there are contributing, like now. That's why Social Security is broke, that's why unionized corporation and government retirement systems drive them to bankruptcy, and that's why Bernie Madoff is in jail.
You obviously like the Kool-Aid; have another glass.
Loonymom: You obviously like the Kool-Aid; have another glass.
Wow, that was original. But then what could one reasonably expect from those who repeat spin without knowing what the words mean.
It's a simple thing, really. You're a fucking idiot. You've NO understanding of economics, and why it matters to reality. Instead, YOU prefer the poisoned kool-aid, and bitterly accuse those of us who know better, that by virtue of the fact that we refuse to drink, WE are poisoning ourselves. How much more fucked up can you possibly BE? Words DO mean things. They have specific meanings. For you and your useful-idiot leftist ilk, the meaning of words change according to your whims. Stated another way, when the truth is not palatable, you prefer to imagine a new "truth" (whatever bullshit you dreamed up in that empty little skull of yours), and then pretend that your imaginary truth IS reality. You're DELUSIONAL. You're SICK. You need HELP. Oh, and with regard to the "article" you posted (idiotic bullshit from a nothing blog), the FACT is that Social Security is BANKRUPT. Your wishful-thinking alters this fact NOT AT ALL. You'll NEVER see all the money you put in. It's GONE. SPENT. STOLEN by politicians over the last five decades. And even now, I'm FORCED to pay into the SS system- organized theft to take money out of my wallet, and food out MY childrens' mouths- to feed your FAT, LAZY, UNDESERVING PARASITE ASS. So instead of complaining about Social Security being broke, you can at least say "THANK YOU," before you take money stolen from me and MY family.
#28. To: Capitalist Eric, Loonymom (#27)
(Edited)
Well said, sir, but a waste of time and effort. Sense talked to a libtard either goes in one ear and out the other or stuck in the shit that they use for brains and passed out with their next bowel movement.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestWorkers pay into Social Security to support current workers who paid into it in the past.
#20. To: Happy Quanzaa (#5)
And that is a Ponzi scheme, and Ponzi scheme's always crash when more people are owed than there are contributing, like now. That's why Social Security is broke, that's why unionized corporation and government retirement systems drive them to bankruptcy, and that's why Bernie Madoff is in jail.
#25. To: lucysmom (#20)
(Edited)
Happy Quanzaa: And that is a Ponzi scheme, and Ponzi scheme's always crash when more people are owed than there are contributing, like now. That's why Social Security is broke, that's why unionized corporation and government retirement systems drive them to bankruptcy, and that's why Bernie Madoff is in jail.
#26. To: Capitalist Eric, Happy Quanzaa (#25)
Loonymom: You obviously like the Kool-Aid; have another glass.
#27. To: lucysmom (#26)
Replies to Comment # 27.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 27.
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]