I’m going to save you the trouble of reading all 218 pages of the Social Security Administration’s “2007 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees” by summing up the dizzying details in six words: Social Security is still going broke.
...
The benefits of personal accounts over the current system can be illustrated with a numerical example. Let’s take a hypothetical 25-year-old male earning $32,000 a year with average wage growth. Under the current system, he will receive $2,780 per month when he retires, or a measly -0.72 percent return on his contributions (according to the handy calculations of the Heritage Foundation). Now imagine that our hypothetical worker invests the retirement portion of his payroll taxes in a bundle of stocks and bonds, earning a modest 4.9 percent return. When he retires at the ripe age of 67, he will have an account with his name on it worth $1.1 million, or $9,546 per month, ready to be spent on that cabin in the mountains he always wanted.
So the debate over Social Security comes down to one simple question: Would you rather have $2,780 a month in your retirement or $9,546 a month?
The funding crisis highlighted by the 2007 report presents us with an opportunity to fix our broken retirement system. But patching up Social Security with an old rag and a hastily sterilized needle will have us back in the same situation ten years down the line, and the worse for wear. Fixing Social Security means not only funding it, but creating the best retirement system possible given our limited resources.
Of course, the Democrats will oppose personal accounts, and will no doubt resort to the same kind of demagoguery they used in 2005 to sink any attempt at reviving the proposal. If Republicans are serious about achieving real, market-based Social Security reform, they will have to effectively communicate to the American people that the only real solution is personal accounts, while the boogeymen are the politicians who don’t trust the people enough to make their own decisions.
4.30.2007
Reform Social Security now!
Pat Toomey on the Social Security black hole:
4.28.2007
Impeach at the Beach pics
Another beautiful Global Warming day at the beach in San Francisco.
Sporting the Gitmo orange with pride.
What would Gandhi do?
V arrives.
Or is that V?
Bush and Cheney make an appearance.
Full of holes. Get it?
The photographer's helicopter.
Filling in the peace sign in the O.
Groovy tunes by a band apparently called Saoza.
UPDATE: Aerial pictures here and video here.
Sporting the Gitmo orange with pride.
What would Gandhi do?
V arrives.
Or is that V?
Bush and Cheney make an appearance.
Full of holes. Get it?
The photographer's helicopter.
Filling in the peace sign in the O.
Groovy tunes by a band apparently called Saoza.
UPDATE: Aerial pictures here and video here.
4.27.2007
4.25.2007
Hell freezes over
I never thought I'd have anything nice to say about Barney Frank, but this is refreshing:
While Reuters tries to blame the ban on President Bush, it was really the work of the disastrously incompetent Senator Bill Frist, who sneaked the ban into a port security bill.
I said at the time that Frist was driving hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of poker enthusiasts away from the Republican Party. The typical online poker player is male, independent, intelligent, educated, and decidedly not socialist -- in short, a huge block of swing voters who ought to lean Republican. Frist rejected these people in favor of campaign donations from gambling interests. Barney Frank is picking up Frist's fumble.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank on Wednesday said he will introduce a bill this week to lift a ban on online gambling.
"Why anyone thinks it is any of my business why some adult wants to gamble is absolutely beyond me," Frank told a community bankers group conference.
Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said he will introduce the legislation on Thursday.
Internet gambling in the United States was effectively banned last October when President George W. Bush signed legislation outlawing gaming financial transactions.
While Reuters tries to blame the ban on President Bush, it was really the work of the disastrously incompetent Senator Bill Frist, who sneaked the ban into a port security bill.
I said at the time that Frist was driving hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of poker enthusiasts away from the Republican Party. The typical online poker player is male, independent, intelligent, educated, and decidedly not socialist -- in short, a huge block of swing voters who ought to lean Republican. Frist rejected these people in favor of campaign donations from gambling interests. Barney Frank is picking up Frist's fumble.
Free money
Don't say ol' W.C. never did nothing for you.
Suze (despite the ditzy spelling, it rhymes with "floozy," not with "cooze") Orman is a cheesy huckster who lied about her bio, but she's teamed up with TD Ameritrade to give you free money.
The plan goes like this: open an account, deposit $50 every month for 12 months, and then TD Ameritrade will give you $100.
Click here to sign up. Use 701 as the promotion code.
Suze (despite the ditzy spelling, it rhymes with "floozy," not with "cooze") Orman is a cheesy huckster who lied about her bio, but she's teamed up with TD Ameritrade to give you free money.
The plan goes like this: open an account, deposit $50 every month for 12 months, and then TD Ameritrade will give you $100.
Click here to sign up. Use 701 as the promotion code.
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