Vito wrote:
Well, I found one statement that wasn't an lie. SS will start paying out
more than it takes in in 2018.

I'm sure that was an oversight

.... But he forgot to mention that that is
exactly as planned! SS is a pay-as-you-go program. Normally, there is no
surplus - everything that comes in goes out as benefits. The rates were
increased and benefits cut in 1982 (IIRC) to create a surplus in
anticipation of the "baby boom" generation retiring.

Nah, there has been a SS surplus for a long time... invested in
Treasuries. It's been used to mask the size of the deficit for decades.

... "Boomers" will retire
in a few years and use up that surplus exactly as planned. The surplus will
last until about 2048 then the system will go back to pay-as-you-go mode
like it worked since Roosevelt. But by then the boomers will be largely dead
and payouts will shrink. THERE IS NO EMERGENCY!


Ah, but there *is* an emergency! There is a huge source of wealth for
Republican campaign contributors, and it's going untapped! They *must*
loot the Social Security Trust Fund while there's still enough there to
make it worth while. Think about it, if all the Wall St types who profit
from getting their paws on workers SS payments turn around and kick a
percent back to the Republican Party, then the Republican majority will
be locked in for a few more election cycles!


Are individual accounts a good idea? Sure. I have several - in addition to
SS.

As does any sensible person with an ounce of fiscal smarts.

... If the NeoCons are hell bent on a subsidy for their stock-broker
supporters then pass a law requiring everybody to have one - seperate from
SS.


And leave the SS funds unlooted? Hey, that's not the American way!

The real question I have is, with a huge deficit, huge imbalance of
trade, an economy that depends on ballooning consumer credit and thus no
savings rate & no ready capital, we are already dependent on the
Japanese (those quaint little Emperor worshippers- maybe we can get them
to worship Bush?) and the Chinese to buy up excess Treasuries. They're
already at their limit, hence the nudge upward in interest rates. Now
what happens when Social Security bows out of the Treasuries market...
who is going to buy up all that already-existing debt along with the
rapidly increasing new debt? Hmmm?

The worst-case scenario for this picture is really terrible. I hope it
doesn't happen.

DSK