Sapping Security ..(social security)

[SoCalDem]

Sapping Security
By Robert B. Reich

http://www.rockymountainbullhorn.com/peanutgallery.cfm?action=view&articleID=291


There have been, and will be, equally dumb ideas emanating from the Bush administration, but privatizing Social Security surely will be in the qualifying round for the first prize.

Start with the irrefutable fact that Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system. The payroll taxes of today’s workers go to today’s retirees. And when today’s workers retire, they’ll be supported by the next generation’s payments into Social Security. In other words, Social Security is a compact between generations, based on trust. I pay into Social Security to support my parents’ generation in their retirement because I trust that my children’s generation will pay into Social Security to support my generation in our retirement.

If their Social Security payments are diverted into their own private accounts, their money won’t be there for my generation’s retirement. The compact will be broken.

It’s theoretically possible for the federal government to bail out my generation by drawing on general tax revenues. But that won’t happen, because there won’t be any spare revenues. The federal budget deficit, already over $400 billion this year, is projected to be more than $5 trillion over the next ten years.

snip...(very good article)
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Robert Reich, former secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, is professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis and the author of Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America, out in May from Knopf.