Did CBS news just discredit SS privatization?

[G_j]

just heard it as I was doing something else in the next room.

They added the numbers for a sample person and she came out a good deal behind with Bush's plan. Anyone hear this? I wish I was paying closer attention.

[Upfront]

1. yep.

[G_j]

3. thanks

I'm glad I wasn't imagining it.
Sounded like a pretty serious slam to me, but I didn't catch the end. Any of the usual backtracking disclaimers at the end of the segment(for umm..balance)?

[bluestateguy]

2. I wonder how long it will take the oh so courageous Leslie Moonves

to apologize.

[greenbriar]

4. yea, but since it is CBS

the truly brainwashed won't believe it

[whistle]

5. It will only be effective if Bush discredits social security...

...privitizaton, because he is the dictator and as the fuhrer if we wants it privatized it will be privatized and if he wants to believe it will work, it will work and even if America's retired see benefits cut by 50% or more, there still will be no change in social security benefits. Come-on people, that's the way a dictatorship works!

[atre]

6. Actually, that was assuming an outrageous 9% rate of return

She won't get 9% unless there are some very, very shrewd investors running her portfolio.

FYI, the reporter also termed it "privatization," a big no-no for the Bush folks.

[G_j]

7. 9% is ridiculously high

even then, I think they said this woman would come out two hundred & something dollars behind per yr.

And you are right, the Bush admin. stopped using the word "privatization".
I'm sure they are pissed off over this story.

[SharonAnn]

12. If there is that kind of growth, then Social Security will be awash

in money.

In other words, if the stock market does well then Social Security also does well (more workers and higher incomes mean more contributions) and there's no need to "save" it.

If Social Security doesn't doesn't do well (fewer workers, lower incomes, less contributions) then the stock market does at least as badly if not worse.

So, if the market goes up 9% then Social Security is awash in money from all the new jobs, higher incomes and larger contribution.

Did you even wonder how a president who supposedly has a Bachelor's degree in history and an MBA is so clueless about history and economics and finance?

[w4rma]

8. I think everyone but FOX has discredited SS privatization at some point.

It's really *that* bad of an idea.

[regnaD kciN]

9. Watch the G.O.P. two-step...

They will take a demonstration like this, and reply, "Yes, but that assumes that Social Security will be solvent. Most likely, it will go bankrupt, and the choice will be between receiving a bit less with private accounts, or having the system go bankrupt and receiving nothing."

This is why I call it the "two-step." On the one hand, admit that there is no crisis, and even that privatization will do nothing to improve the solvency of Social Security, then brush off objections to their own plan by saying that "it's better than nothing, which is the only alternative since the current system is in crisis, and about to go bankrupt."

What this really constitutes is an admission that the Bush plan isn't to "save" Social Security, as Bush so often claims. What it's really about is claiming (falsely) that Social Security is moribund and will certainly die off, and constructing an alternate, inferior system for when that "inevitably" happens as a "lesser of two evils."

:grr:

[G_j]

11. you sure got their number!

good post

[Quixote1818]

10. Their are WMD's hidden in the SS trust fund.