The Social Security Scam

I'm sure we've all heard about Bush's plot to gut the social security system in order to get the financial services sector even cozier with the Republicans. We've heard, "The system is in crisis... blah blah blah... the system goes into the red in 2042... blah blah blah..." Well, the South Bend Tribune talks with a couple of Notre Dame economists and gets the real scoop. Basically, they say, the supposed crisis only occurs because the revenue projections used are unrealistically low. They assume that the economy will grow at an average 1.8% a year for the next 75 years. If, however, the economy grows at an average of 2.6% a year, Social Security will be able to meet its obligations with no changes. By comparison, in the past 75 years, the economy has grown at a rate of 3.4% per year. Crisis? What crisis?

Of course, this doesn't address the question of how taking money out of the system and putting it into pseudo-individual accounts would address the so-called crisis...

A final aside, I think the scary clown behind the Social Security card is way cool. Shades of R.J.'s Stalky"...