Dear Everyone;
Last Friday the SF Examiner had an op-ed on how to save Social Security. The three main points of the article were the following:
1: Don't repeal estate taxes just dedicate estate taxes to Social Security to make up deficits.
2.Restore using a basis of 90% aggregate of all incomes as the level for Social Security taxes instead of using the current cut off of $102,000 so corpoarte executives and all other higher paid positions pay a fair share.
3. Allowing Social Security to invest its assets in equities. ( BTW: What assets? )
I had a few things to say on how Social Security could be saved and still avoid the so-called third-rail. Yes the ideal thing would be to shut it down completely but that ain't gonna happen.
This is the op-ed taken from the LA Times as the SF Examiner did not have it posted on their web site.
The right fixes for Social Security
template_bas
template_bas
Politicians could be heroes without expending much political capital.
By Nancy Altman
April 9, 2008
Along with baseball and cherry blossoms, spring in the nation's capital brings a ritualized dance over Social Security. Every year for the last two decades, Social Security's trustees have issued a report alerting Congress that action is needed to keep the program solvent. And every year, Congress answers with silence.
See more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-altman9apr09,0,4459966.story
Ron Getty - SF Libertarian
Hostis res Publica
Social Security repair
You can’t repair a government mandated Ponzi scheme known as Social Security (“Three steps to Social Security Repair,” Viewpoints, April 11). Social Security taxes current workers and directly transfers the tax money to retirees. Ponzi schemes take money from late investors sending it to early investors maintaining the appearance of a hot investment return.
Social Security has no insurance or trust fund. It does have IOU’s from when Congress spent overpayments. Privatization fell apart when it was realized that there would be no money to transfer to retirees because the “trust fund” was empty.
Save Social Security by cutting new applicants with a baseline of those now 50 when they reach retirement age. Cut off benefits for retirees receiving other retirement income above the monthly payment. Disconnect Social Security from inflation and readjust the contributions needed to cover retiree benefits.
Stop forcing workers to support Ponzi scheme retirees.
Ron Getty