Imagine if Dimson got his wish to privatize social security?

[AlCzervik]

The President did not specify what he would do to fix the Social Security problem. He again urged creation of private Social Security accounts. But those would be of no help whatsoever in shoring up the system's finances. The President made those private accounts sound like a sure bet. History suggests that the President is correct -- the stock market has averaged a 6.8% "real" rate of return (adjusted for inflation) over the past two centuries. The administration says a conservative mix of stocks, corporate bonds and government bonds would return 4.6 percent, even after inflation and administrative costs. And the administration also figures that private accounts would need to generate only a 3 percent rate of return to beat what Social Security provides. But there's no guarantee that history will repeat itself. Markets are inherently unpredictable and volatile. At present, for example, all major stock-market indexes are still well below where they were five years ago.


http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/George_W__Bush_Social_Security.htm

[liberal N proud]

1. Let this week be an example to raise every time they try

Point out to anyone who supported or who still supports privatization what has happened to Fanny and Freddie and then the banks this week.

But then this is what they wanted to happen to Social Security.

[AlCzervik]

2. and AIG has essentially been nationalized so it looks like the free market ain't so free anymore

for now.

[liberal N proud]

3. ..

[PATRICK]

4. We have stopped them

or events have on several large opportunities. privatizing Social security for this inevitable day would have meant that everyone would have been forced to the private lines to protect their own savings. All of society would have been privatized to render the "socialization" of troubled banks more ominous and a different animal altogether than they are now. The disaster would have had the nation by the throat and at the mercy of the big players with the government hopeless and bound to submit to "bi-partisanship" and effective dictatorship. Many things could have been much worse(small comfort) than they are in Bushworld.
Getting away with an easy victory for a criminal theft of Iraq would have been one too.

The trouble is that missing the category 6 economic hurricane for now does not mean the category 4 is all that great today.