Welcome to Wall Street Journal’s Social Security Dream World

[jtown1123]

From the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare's Blog:

It’s never a surpise to see yet another Wall Street Journal opinion writer extolling the values of privatization, vouchers and the demonization of the average American. However, this opinion piece written by former member of the Reagan administration was particularly ridiculous. In a nutshell, he claims that American seniors will become millionaires thanks to Social Security and Medicare. No, really—that’s what he said.

Readers may recall the 1950s TV show, “The Millionaire,” which portrayed stories of individuals who were given a “no strings attached” gift of money by an anonymous benefactor. Each week in one of the show’s opening scenes, a man representing the wealthy benefactor, John Beresford Tipton Jr., knocked on an unsuspecting recipient’s door and announced: “My name is Michael Anthony and I have a cashier’s check for you for one million dollars.”

That TV program is scheduled to return next year as a reality show, and the new recipients will be the typical husband and wife who reach age 66 and qualify for Social Security. Starting next year, this typical couple, receiving the average benefit, will begin collecting a combination of cash and health-care entitlement benefits that will total $1 million over their remaining expected lifetime.

Alternet provides an easy to understand description of why this analysis is flat-out wrong:

All of this, Cogan says, is according to his own calculations based on government data. It’s all wrong, however, and while it’s often difficult to say with any certainty whether someone is intentionally lying to people or simply making an honest error, in this case it’s clear.

Cogan’s sleight of hand is simple: when he gives the amount this average couple paid into the two programs, he adjusts for inflation to current dollars. On the benefits side, he doesn’t – he uses future dollars, which results in a larger number. John Cogan is a professor of public policy at Stanford University; every one of his students knows that he or she would get an F comparing inflation adjusted numbers on one side of the ledger to nominal dollars on the other – it’s apples and oranges and it’s about as mendacious as one can get.

Our Executive VP and Acting CEO, Max Richtman, also challenges the clearly political inter-generational warfare angle of this piece in his letter to Wall Street Journal editors. Since there’s not a chance his letter will ever see print, we offer it to you here:

THE REST: http://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/?p=1753

[defendandprotect]

1. For fascist editorials they can't be beat -- and been attacking Social Security for decades!!

[liberal N proud]

2. From the National Committee sounds almost Chinese

The Committee!

Scary as the Chinese too.

[jtown1123]

3. They're actually a great organization if you take the time to look them up.