| Subject: Re: an ownership society |
Author:
pjk
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Date Posted: 02/ 5/05 10:43:25am
In reply to:
krz
's message, "an ownership society" on 02/ 4/05 8:47:43pm
Hi krz & tjm -
tjm- I agree, Fortune is better at being non-partisan than most.
Krz - did you hear the back and forth about "ownership" on NPR this week? One guy was from Cato or Hoover, I can't remember the other guy, probably a writer for The Nation. The points I remember were that one reason home ownership is so high is due to federal programs (Freddie and Fannie) and GI Bills, and that (2) ownership also inherently means bearing the risk and that SS exists b/c people will ineveitably make poor financial decisions (see household-consumer-credit card debt figures) and that either society picks up the pieces or tolerates lots of people eating dog food shivering in the cold
Privatization...
To date, I haven't seen any benefits worth the risk and cost associated with Bush's attempt to eliminate the social security compact...
Bush's plan (?) - for which the reasons morph from day to day - costs trillions and the end result is nowhere near as "secure" or better than what we have even without tinkering.
As for the Fortune article, it doesn't speak to the specific issues that Krugman, since he was mentioned, has written about. Mentioning him was gratuitous. I think when other commentators say that "there is no crisis" it is relative to the far more pressing concerns like Medicare/aid & the Federal budget deficits, consumer debt and the trade deficit, global warming, etc.. The article itself doesn't take Krugman to task but instead uses him to deflect the finger pointing at the politicians who have been spending the surplus. Implied in the article, the problem is not Soc.Sec. but rather the reality that the surpluses will have to be restored in the relatively near future. To me it appears that the "myth" being peddled by so called "liberals" is that the we should assume that the government will pay its debt to the system when the time comes... is this a fantasy? Some people seem to think so... the government won't be able to pay back the money it has borrowed and therefore the crisis belongs to... the retirees and their children. (tax cuts anyone?) Is Fortune saying that the Americans and the world at large cannot depend on the USGovt. to repay its loans when they are due but instead resort to "creative accounting" to balance the sheets? [Not especially encouraging to the foreigners (china/japan) currently underwriting 80% of our debt.] By slashing benefits already payed for? Do Americans just shrug their shoulders and say, "Oh, well." (Probably)
The medical analogy (forgive me krz!): a broken left arm versus advancing stages of cancer.
From my perspective, the Fortune article neutralizes the exaggeration of the "need" for a (previously bipartisan à la New Democrat) Clinton-Bush privatization of SS by saying the "other side" is exaggerating, too. To me it is the equivalent of the headline: "Both sides peddling myths. The world neither circular nor flat. It's ovular."
For me, I keep the origins of SS in the back of mind, one of them being that the stock market is unreliable and, therefore, not secure. In THEORY, more money might be had, but in REALITY, there is no such guarantee and is therefore not SECURE. The stock market is Las Vegas, and in many ways, it is run by similar mafioso types (Enron, Worldom,etc.).
Here's the latest from Krugman: 2/4
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/04/opinion/4krugman.html?oref=login&n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists
Here's 2/1
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/01/opinion/01krugman.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists
Here's 1/21
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/21/opinion/21krugman.html?ex=1107752400&en=3a4c9bb77ed7d8fe&ei=5070
And 1/18
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/opinion/18krugman.html?ex=1107752400&en=d568907ccd56e343&ei=5070
Who is the real Paul Krugman? See a good profile at:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0212.confessore.html
p.s. - how's the knee?
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