A New Idea to Fix the Retirement-Savings Crisis
http://business.time.com/2013/04/17/a-new-idea-to-fix-the-retirement-savings-crisis/?hpt=hp_t5
OK, since Social Security is now ‘broke’ (it is this way because of extended, concerted efforts by the people in charge) and we have too many poor people littering our streets seeking handouts, lets force our brave citizens to accept even lower paychecks and then require them to put that money into accounts to be manipulated by Wall Street! How can we possibly lose? The poor get poorer and the rich get richer! Ain’t America Great?
Earlier I talk about a different form of retirement account that is not managed by the government yet also not managed by Wall Street. If we could somehow build a government that was actually beholden to its average citizen (as opposed to the top fraction of a percent oligarchy) then I would say that the only ‘problem’ with Social Security is it is under funded (let the tax apply to all of everyone’s earnings, wages AND investment income!) and any ‘interest’ is from T-bills which are (currently) paying less than inflation. Of course, if our government manages the trillions of dollars in the SS fund as if it were a regular pension fund (i.e., by buying stocks, bonds, etc.) then our government would be in the business of managing a whole host of corporations through the fund’s controlling interest in stock. If our government took a pledge not to ‘meddle’ then in effect we are immediately returning back to our current state where the board and executives can rape and pillage their own company willy nilly since being an owner of a company (i.e., a stock holder) doesn’t mean a damn thing any more.
What is dysfunctional about our Social Security system is that it is under constant attack and has no powerful defenders. Oh, I already talked about the idea of extending the retirement age.
