The social security "crisis" is *not* much inflated--it is pure fiction. The "Trust Fund"--containing only US Gov't bonds--is sufficient to pay all obligations for well over 50 years. The scarecrow is the "threat" that sometime before then, current social security/medicare receipts will fall below current total outlays. That would require either new borrowing or tax increases to buy back the bonds. So what!! For social security/medicare to be unable to meet expenses during our lifetime involves the US's default on its entire national debt. When that happens, social security/medicare finances will be far down on the list of national emergencies.
Shane Mage
"When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even downright silly.
When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true." (N. Weiner)
The social security "crisis" is much inflated. As with any social inusrance system, the ratio of workers to retirees flattens as the system matures. But talk of a crisis is merely a wedge to open some political space for privatization, a scheme that would speed, rather than delay, the day of reckoning. Faster economic growth, lower unemployment, ora higher income cap, (roughly $88,000 this year) would make the crisis disappear.
Joel Blau
Original Message: ----------------- From: ravi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 14:16:09 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: the future of social security/medicare
andie nachgeborenen wrote:I do not expect to have Social Security or Medicare, for example.
what did you folks think of kuttner's piece in business week (march 2004):
if you have a BW online id (i do not): http://www.businessweek.com/premium/content/04_11/b3874042_mz007.htm?se=1
essentially, if i understand him correctly, he quotes a few reports, based on which he suggests that the funds will not run out by ~ 2025 (as feared), unless bush continues his tax cut strategy including making cuts permanent.
--ravi
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