you know what this reminds me of, all the geeks who give YOU financial advice but haven't got two dimes to rub together, they are driving the 1985 Chevy Blazer OK
it is a good rule not to take financial advice from anyone unless they too are financially successful......
Krugman sounds like a guy who must not have a penny in his 401K or even have a 401K, maybe not even a penny in his savings account, he probably is in hock up to his eyeballs, living the high life in NY, and he's giving the world advice on finances and economics.....or how else besides being a fraud or liar, could he forget about those accruing PRA's
what really gets my goat about Social Security and the Canadian equivalent is that if you die, so do the benefits, in other words, Social Security is a welfare program to begin with, not a pension program......
Unless, as is distinctly possible in Krugboy's case, one happens to be a total wastrel.
I should **dearly** love to go up against this quasi-Marxist loony-tune ''economist'' in a straight-up head-to-head investing/trading contest, say of 1 or 2 years' duration, and pull down his pants (metaphorically speaking) in public for all the world to see.
No one ever said that it was not a welfare program. That does not mean that it is not also a pension program. Essentially, they are both annuities paid out as a percentage of previous wages. If you want to call it welfare, an annuity, or a pension program makes little difference. However, I think that it is much more than welfare because social security is a pay as you go system in which those that pay in now will receive benefits in the future. In that sense, you are saving for the future. If it was absolute welfare, then people would be getting something for nothing and those that pay into the system would be supporting those that do not. Therefore, if it is welfare as you say it is, then personal savings accounts are a moot point. If you are not paying into the system that rewards you later, then how is the government going to create a personal savings account out of money that is earmarked for others?
There are also survivor or dependent death benefits with which one must contend - this is more of the welfare aspect of it. Additionally, the social security program provides benefits to the disabled as well. While that was not the original intention of the law, it did lay the ground work for it.