Hunting The Muse

Unrelated link but I thought you would appreciate this immensely.

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2663486?htv=12

This is a pack of lies. It is excellent misinformation at best.

Reason #1: Today's insurance to protect workers and their families against death and disability would be threatened. (Except that they refer to indexing of disability benefits, which has nothing at all to do with privatization.)

Reason #2: Creating private accounts would make Social Security's financing problem worse, not better. (In the short term, but better in the long term. We're all against long term solutions, right?)

Reason #3: Creating private accounts could dampen economic growth, which would further weaken Social Security's future finances. (Even Krugman doesn't believe this, and World Bank studies cited within this article say the opposite. The long term benefits are also ignored)

Reason #4: Privatization has been a disappointment elsewhere. (Backed up, of course, with articles that say no such thing.)

Reason #5: The odds are against individuals investing successfully. (But they would still come out ahead - isn't that relevant?)

Reason #6: What you get will depend on whether you retire when the market is up or down. (But you would still retire better than under social security, which is more important)

Reason #7: Wall Street would reap windfalls from your taxes. (The object is to provide better retirements, not prevent wall street from making money)

Reason #8: Private accounts would require a new government bureaucracy. (And?).

Reason #9: Young people would be worse off. (Young people would benefit the most. The reference does not show that young people would be worse off due to privatisation).

Reason # 10: Women stand to lose the most. (Because they live the longest, and therefore collect benefits).

Reason #11: African Americans and Latin Americans also would become more vulnerable under privatization. (Only if change the logic from what was used in #10 above, ignore, pretend not to know why people claim african americans are worse of, and then proceed to apply reasoning that has nothing to do with privatisation)

Reason #12: Retirees will not be protected against inflation. (Entirely unsupported by evidence.)

Thanks for the short rebuttal. I could not believe the crap in that article. I really was irritated by the reason of race being a problem of privatization. Dragging race into it when there is no difference ($ for $ as stated in the article) is scary.

The fact is African Americans are shortchanged under the current system, and always have been.