Pay Me Now or You Can Pay Me Later

The press hammers the President's proposal to reform social security. They whine that a trillion dollars in the red is too much and that's only putting 2 of the 15% toward the private accounts. Personally I don't think it is near enough. The 6.2% solution is a better bet.

We don't let corporations run pension funds on promises, we require that they front a certain amount of cash. But when it comes to the federal government we seem to be happy with promises, even though anyone paying attention know that we will bleed a lot more the ;longer we wait to fix this.

Quoting a famous philosopher, "you can pay me now or you can pay me later."

If your catching up on this topic here is some required reading.

In the meantime read Minuteman's analysis of a NY Times editorial.

Just One Minute has "Social Security Privatization - Easy To Demagogue"

Social Security privatization is complicated, and the Bush side has not put forward a specific proposal. Furthermore, there are sensible objections to the types of plans being floated. Consequently, it is very easy for a privatization critic to either (a) be confused, or (b) attempt to confuse others.

The NY Times runs an editorial on Social Security privatization today. Although I hestitate to underestimate their abilities for self-delusion and confusion, my guess is that they have deliberately chosen to terrify rather than clarify. Read On...