Krugman: The British Evasion (Social Security)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/14/opinion/14krugman.html?hp=&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=

We must end Social Security as we know it, the Bush administration says, to meet the fiscal burden of paying benefits to the baby boomers. But the most likely privatization scheme would actually increase the budget deficit until 2050. By then the youngest surviving baby boomer will be 86 years old.

Even then, would we have a sustainable retirement system? Not bloody likely.

<snip>

The U.S. news media have provided readers and viewers with little information about how privatization has worked in other countries. Now my colleagues have even fewer excuses: there's an illuminating article on the British experience in The American Prospect, www.prospect.org, by Norma Cohen, a senior corporate reporter at The Financial Times who covers pension issues.

Her verdict is summed up in her title: "A Bloody Mess." Strong words, but her conclusions match those expressed more discreetly in a recent report by Britain's Pensions Commission, which warns that at least 75 percent of those with private investment accounts will not have enough savings to provide "adequate pensions."

<snip>
And the chief executive of Britain's National Association of Pension Funds speaks with admiration about a foreign system that "delivers efficiencies of scale that most companies would die for." The foreign country that, in the view of well-informed Britons, does it right is the United States. The system that delivers efficiencies to die for is Social Security.

[necso]

1. Classic Krugman,

"the usual ideologues" is a gut buster.

But hey, they're getting paid (and famed) for it. -- If it was tattered clothes, a soapbox on the corner and Mad Dog 20/20, they might find better things to do.

[Raster]

2. Nothing with the bush* scheme rings true. Look at their track record.

This group of yahoos shouldn't be trusted with ANYTHING!!!

The only reason bush* wants to "reform" Social Security is to give the banking and finance industry their payday.

How can you tell if bush* is lying? His lips are moving.

[reprehensor]

3. But, if the President SAYS there's a crisis...

Then, there MUST be a crisis...

Krugman rocks.