Krugman: "America's Senior Moment" - from NYRB

[swag]

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17771
. . .
If Bush-style privatization actually goes through, the end game is fairly predictable: it's what is happening in Britain now. A couple of decades from now, it will be obvious to everyone that the returns on private accounts have fallen far short of expectations, and that America is about to experience a resurgence of poverty among the elderly. There will be irresistible demands for the government to call off cuts in benefit levels. (Remember, the over-sixty-five population will be an even larger share of the electorate than it is now.) And the result will be to make the fiscal outlook much worse than it would have been without privatization: the government will have borrowed trillions of dollars with the promise of future budget savings, but those savings will never materialize.
. . .
In other words, whatever the current administration and congressional majority propose to deal with the health care crisis—you can be sure they'll declare a crisis as soon as they're done with Social Security— will actually move our system in the wrong direction.
. . .
Four years ago, I and many other economists urged policymakers to think about the future cost of Social Security benefits, not because we thought there was anything wrong with Social Security itself, but because we regarded the future costs as a compelling reason not to cut taxes even if the overall budget was in surplus. Today, with the overall budget deep in deficit, and the administration considering "tax reform" that will amount to even more tax cuts for the well-to-do, it all seems a moot point. The first priority is to do something about the fiscal crisis we have right now, not worry about the fiscal crisis we might face a generation from now.

[Goldeneye]

1. We have to keep harping on SS too.

Mangate is important, but SS privatization would be a disaster.

[swag]

6. Agreed,

Every DUer needs not only to contact Sens and Reps to press them not to succumb to this massive rip-off masquerading as Social Security "reform," but needs to urge smart friends and rellies to do the same.

The Wall Street-financed campaign to destroy Social Security is just now getting started, and if we let ourselves get rope-a-doped on this, we'll lose Social Security forever. And what we'll see is a massive increase in poverty and misery in the US for the benefit of the very few.

[Skinner]

2. Great article.

Thanks for posting it.

[TahitiNut]

3. It's a "supply-side" issue ... payrolls.

Again, the Bush Pere et Fils Fascist Cabal has waged a 'take no prisoners' war on the working class. Fewer people employed and for less - as the charts below show. When economic projections assume "more of the same," the canary in that coal mine is Social Secuirty.

[nodictators]

9. These charts show that Bush wants a low-wage, high-unemployment...

...economy

President Clinton ran a full-employment economy in his second term (it took him a few years to reverse the miserable Reagan-Bush41 disaster).

Then, the Social Security Trust Fund was thriving, with the drop-dead date receeding into the distant future. BTW, Clinton's economic success exposed Greenscam (with his incessant scary predictions for SS) as a buffon or a liar, take your pick.

Sen. Boxer recently warned that the private accounts are the mechanism for destroying SS. She was a stock broker herself, and believes in investing in stocks, but NOT with one's SS money.

[swag]

10. "Sweatshop America" is what's really hiding behind

"Ownership Society."

Turning the United States into a giant sweatshop where the many toil for the benefit of the few has been central to the Bush vision.

The fight over Social Security destruction is the biggest battle yet. Join the battle, and fight Bush and the sweatshop masters.

[Spiffarino]

11. "Sweatshop America" is putting it brilliantly n/t

[TahitiNut]

19. Yep. You got it.

That earns you the KSOTO Award ... which apparently is beyond the grasp of 80% of Kool-Aid-drinking Amurikans, sadly including altogether too many on DU.

KSOTO - Keen Sense Of The Obvious :-)

[KG]

4. how much deeper into the sand can the US bury its collective head?

[spanone]

5. Stand by, the sand is DEEP.

[progressiveandproud]

8. Given the growing federal deficit... all the way to China. ;) n/t

[skids]

12. That completely depends...

...on how long of a neck is available.

[progressiveandproud]

15. I like that response.

It reminds me of that campaign ad by MoveOn, I believe, with the memorable image of an ostrich sticking its head in the sand. Perhaps you were thinking of that.

In any case, I'd say we're running out of neck. ;). No laughing matter... but we will need our senses of humor when the time comes.

Jonathan

[SammyWinstonJack]

17. Head in the sand, leaves butt in air to get kicked.

repeatedly.

[pansypoo53219]

7. can you see S&L

crisis all over this? not only will transition costs be in the trillions. it is gonna cost twice that to 'fix' it.

brilliant.

[The Zanti Regent]

13. How do we UNbrainwash the masses?

They watch Xtian TV and all the TV Preachers are pushing privitization on the one hand, while they still tell the morons that Jesus is coming back in a week or 2.

How do we wake the masses up? Is there anything we can do?

[Coexist]

14. thanks for the post

I don't know why the corporate media doesn't talk about Britain's system more, since they are in the middle of what we are proposing.

[annabanana]

16. you really don't ?..................n/t

:think:

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. I do.

Corporate media says it all.

[Jackpine Radical]

20. The terrible, tragic flaw in Krugman's logic

lies in his assumption that a huge army of pissed-off elderly voters is going to matter in the general scheme of things. The Repugs have figured out how to win elections no matter what the majority wants. The corporations are finding their consumers, as well as their producers, overseas, mostly in Asia. America is rapidly becoming a hollow shell, filled with powerless Nowhere People, perhaps useful as domestic servants, cannon fodder and maybe organ donors for the rich who own them. Once sufficient numbers of us have died off from starvation, disease, and the machine guns of the riot police, the real estate valuse of the nation may arise again as the super-rich buy up gigantic tracts of it for their personal estates.

That's what they really mean by the "Ownership Society."