Politics > Politics-USA > Right wing reason for privatizing Social Security? They hate it and want to destroy it.
| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
21 Dec 2004 10:26:24 AM |
| Object: |
Right wing reason for privatizing Social Security? They hate it and want to destroy it. |
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/block/pessimism
Pessimistic Conservatives Cannot Fix Social Security
by Fred Block
The Administration’s push for radical reform of Social Security rests
on the idea that it is impossible to solve the system’s long term
financing problems.
In reality, this pessimism is simply a consequence of their deep
hostility to public spending.
Right-wingers endlessly repeat the mantra that when Social Security
began, there were 42 people paying into the system for every person
receiving benefits and that by 2040 that ratio will fall to 2 working
people for every retiree.
The logical conclusion is obvious: we can no longer guarantee retirees
the level of benefits that they currently receive.
The elderly will have to tighten their belts and rely more on their
own private savings.
Think, however, of the deep pessimism that lies behind this argument.
It is like saying that in 1900, there was one farmer or farm worker
for every seven Americans, but because that ratio has fallen to one
farmer for every 83 people, we should all tighten our belts and eat
less food.
Rising agricultural productivity has made it possible for fewer people
to provide all the food that we need.
In the same way, if we can grow our economy and increase productivity
over the next forty years, each working person should have no
difficulty producing enough extra wealth to provide support for half
of a retired person.
Providing economic security to the aged is just a question of how we
divide the pie.
Today, social security outlays represent 4.5% of our total economic
output.
If the economy grows strongly over the next forty years, we can
support the elderly as generously as we do now with only 5% of the
total pie even with further gains in life expectancy.
In short, strong economic growth is the key to solving the long-term
financing problems of Social Security.
And there is a proven way to grow the economy over the next half
century.
It is to invest in education and basic research.
If we invest in our young people--from early childhood through higher
education--we can create a more skilled and productive labor force.
And if we also invest more in long term research, we can create the
new industries that will employ those highly skilled workers.
This is precisely what other nations are doing in their efforts to
surpass us as the world’s strongest economic power.
Here’s the problem: the strand of conservatism that currently
dominates the Republican Party doesn’t believe in increasing any kind
of civilian government spending.
They don’t want money going to the elderly and they don’t want
spending for young people; all they want to do is reduce taxes and
shrink government.
As Grover Norquist, one of the most influential conservatives in
Washington has said, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply
want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom
and drown it in the bathtub."
With this bizarre philosophy, conservatives have been systematically
underinvesting in our future.
While a growing body of research now shows that investing in quality
early childhood education helps all children do better in school,
conservatives have steadfastly resisted increasing spending for
quality childcare.
Fewer and fewer families are able to afford the $7000-9,000 per year
per child cost of center-based care.
Despite all of the President’s rhetoric about leaving no child behind,
our public schools remain desperately underfunded.
Especially in working class and poor neighborhoods, overcrowding, lack
of decent equipment, and a continuing shortage of skilled teachers are
the rule, not the exception.
Most critically, the financial barriers to pursuit of higher education
are rising relentlessly.
Tuition costs at public universities have increased at more than 10%
per year and the Republican Congress has already made it harder for
students to qualify for Pell grants that could alleviate these costs.
They have no plans to help more of our young people to afford a
college education.
But the problem is even deeper; their "look ma, no hands" approach to
the economy is keeping us from developing the industries of the
future.
In Japan and South Korea, government spending is helping to wire the
entire nation for high-speed Internet connections, while our Internet
capacity lags far behind.
Other nations are spending billions on alternatives to fossil fuels,
while we continue to rely on coal and oil.
All this is assuring that the industries of the future will flourish
overseas.
No wonder they are so pessimistic about our ability to support
retirees forty years from now.
Their anti-government and anti-tax policies are steering our economy
towards long-term weakness.
They are creating a future in which most people in the United States
will be poorer because we are failing to develop 21st century skills
and 21st century industries.
Are these the people we should trust to fix Social Security?
_________________________________________________________
Hey, don't look at me, I didn't vote for 'em.
Harry
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Right wing reason for privatizing Social Security? They hate it and want to destroy it. |
21 Dec 2004 11:14:42 AM |
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On Tue, 21 Dec 2004, Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
Right wing reason for privatizing Social Security? They hate it and want to destroy it.
As the first step, they should stop collecting it (and Medicare, which
they also hate) and renounce accepting any benefits now or in the
future. Put their actions where their mouths are, to establish some
credibility. They can all live off Cato's 401K, can't they?
.
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