Posted on 09/14/2011 4:26:30 PM PDT by radioone
I don't want to seem to quibble with Richard Freeman's essay, since I am overwhelmingly in agreement with it. Let me just make a few points.
I like Freeman's idea of providing each individual with a trust fund when young rather than retirement benefits when old, but we had better realize that this is a significant change in the character of the social insurance system. Social Security is structured from the point of view of the recipients as if it were an ordinary retirement plan: what you get out depends on what you put in. So it does not look like a redistributionist scheme. In practice it has turned out to be strongly redistributionist, but only because of its Ponzi game aspect, in which each generation takes more out than it put in. Well, the Ponzi game will soon be over, thanks to changing demographics, so that the typical recipient henceforth will get only about as much as he or she put in (and today's young may well get less than they put in). HT/Newsbusters
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonreview.net ...
Hoisted on his own petard?
Thanks to the Democrats and Republicans in Washington stealing the money in the SS fund and replacing it with useless IOUs ..
I think you misspelled retard.
so that the typical recipient henceforth will get only about as much as he or she put in
Maybe if I live to be 90.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.