<[email protected]> wrote: > The [Social Security] Trust Fund is fictitious capital not backed by any > tangible assets and as such has a potential risk for SS recipients....<
Marx's phrase "fictitious capital" is unfortunate. On the one hand, it makes sense because it refers to "capital" which isn't based on direct extraction of surplus-value but is instead based on expected future incomes. That is, it's based on mere promises. On the other hand, it may be _good_ fiction. The price of the stock shares of a solid company likely to reap big profits in future years are "fictitious" because it is based on promises and guesses about the future. But chances are that the surplus-value will be produced (and realized) in the future so that the expected dividends (or capital gains) will be paid. Of course, there's also bad fiction, as with bubble-based share prices. The OASI trust fund consists of a bunch of government bonds. They're not negotiable, but the interest on those bonds are backed by the state's power to tax. That suggests that they are "good" fiction. In which case, it seems like OASI will have to dip into its trust fund only if Congress forces them to do so, by avoiding some relatively minor adjustments needed to keep tax revenues flowing into OASI's coffers in sufficient numbers. The OASI system is not really in trouble (unless Congress wants it to be). -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
