May 11, 2005
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:I wish I'd said it
I wish I'd said it so concisely:
At its heart, the muddle over social security reflects the muddle over other, basic questions, such as "should people save for themselves or should the government save for them", "should the government take money from rich people and give it to the poor or not? If they should, how much?". As social security stands, it saves for no one, and takes from both rich and poor young people and gives to rich old people.
While looking through Winterspeak, I also notice that Zimran also seems to have a perfectly acceptable corrections policy (paging Mr. Cohen), as demonstrated in this post on marginal tax rates.
Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at May 11, 2005 1:28 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksYeah, you run with the greedy rich old people meme. Good luck with that.
Isn't it amazing that the word "rich" triggers the response "greedy rich"?
"... gives to rich old people." It doesn't have the ring to it until you add "... gives to GREEDY rich old people."
Greed is the desire for unearned wealth. There is an alternate definition, a desire for excessive wealth. But in my opinion, the alternate definition is meaningless. How can earned wealth ever be excessive?
So who is greedy? The guy who earns a billion dollars providing something that someone else values? Or the guy who declares a right to a piece of the pie because he happens to live in roughly the same geographic area as the guy who earned the billion?
I'd say the elderly beneficiary who receives a 5% real return on his payroll taxes because today's 25 year-old worker will receive a -1% real return on his and refuses to consider any change of the system is greedy.
The more I read about social security, especially from the left, the less I care. I'm young, I'm gonna get screwed, and the AARP will do its best to make sure that happens. I'm getting cynical enough to be resigned to this fate, which is why I have a 401k and a Roth IRA. The left will lie and say that the trust funds are worth something, while ignoring that 1) they're an internal obligation and 2) even if they were an external obligation they'd have to be paid with taxes. Much of the right will ignore the total fiscal picture and continue to carp on Social Security while passing things like the medicare giveaway. Basically, I hope the old hurry up, shuffle off, and quit voting.
Context people. "... takes from both rich and poor young people and gives to rich old people." I supplied the word not the concept.
When you're talking about taking money from X and giving it to rich Y, why would anyone ever imagine that you were implying greed in Y? Of course we could just wait for AT to tell us that old people are greedy.
Like I said, keep pounding that drum until 2006 and good luck to you.
I'm pretty sure that "I deserve free money from someone else -- screw them!" is greed under any definition.
"Go with it"? Zimran isn't looking for a slogan, he merely states facts.
Besides the whole 'greedy rich people' is trademarked by the left. The libertarians have 'wealth transfer of any kind violates property rights'. Look out 2008!
Tim - remember, you are only going to get screwed if the kill social security crowd gets their way. Minor adjustments in the inputs and outputs are all that will be needed in the future to keep SS solvent in the future. We've failed to adequately raise the retirement age appropriately enough to adjust for increases in life expectancy, however I guarantee that there will be 21-70 year olds around, paying in to the system to fund your benefits when you're 75.
wallster: Well, OK, if you think being forced to invest in a pension plan with negative returns isn't being screwed... And see Jane's later post about the size of the adjustments required.
"Minor adjustments in the inputs and outputs are all that will be needed in the future to keep SS solvent in the future. "
That is correct.
You can make the SS solvent. But the rate of return you get on the money you paid into the system would be really lousy. So the solvent SS takes from you money all your life, and gives you back, when retired, a small portion thereof.
It's solvent, but stinks.
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