09 Jan 2005 Arguments Against Social Security Privatization Demolished

Eric Berlin quotes and then demolishes a New York Times op-ed against Social Security privatization.

Sample comments from a piece that deserves to be read by everyone:

If you, as an individual, put a certain amount of money into the Social Security fund, and later in life you receive benefits whose value is less than that contribution… how is that good?

and

If the stock market has provided better returns than treasury bills since damn near the beginning of time, which I believe is the case, then I can live with the idea of “no guarantee.”

and

Which do you think is more likely to be transparent: A private company beholden to its customers and stockholders, or a government program that you can’t get out of no matter what?

and

Man, do I hate comparisons between casinos and the stock market. It’s so easy, and so wrong. The stock market trends upwards every year and has since its creation. If you, as a young person, put money in a fund that tracks the S&P 500 (diversification! risk management! 500 stocks at once!), you will, when you retire, have more money in your possession when you retire 25 years later. If you go to the casino every week for those 25 years, you will be broke.

Read the whole thing.

Addendum: Hmmm…. I see that Paulie at The Commons at Paulie World tried to do a trackback to this post and it did not work. Maybe my trackback system isn’t operating properly… Thanks for trying, though, Paulie. Tells me I have a problem, even though I haven’t a clue why.