Að gera félagskerfið að fjáhættuspili?

Hér að neðan er með mjög hressilegum hætti gagnrýnt að Bush ætli að stokka upp í félagskerfinu þeirra fyrir Westan.


Something Is Missing In Social Security
DebateBy Christopher M. Trebilcock, 03.20.05

With all the talk in the news, on Capitol Hill and in coffee shops and diners across the country about President Bush’s plan to privatize social security for millions of workers, it seems that most pundits and politicians are ignoring a rather obvious issue, that after some common sense analysis, demonstrates why the Bush Savings Plan is not an adequate substitute to Social Security:

Has anyone asked Alan Greenspan and the other economic “geniuses” in Washington to measure the long-term impact on the stock market of infusing millions of dollars into the market by millions of workers under the age of 55 with little or no knowledge of the company that they are about to stake their financial future on, let alone enough time in their lives to make an even educated guess about which stock may be a good investment?

President Bush and many Republicans on Capitol Hill will tell you that this infusion of dollars is a good thing; that it will drive the entire market up, spur more investment, which will create more jobs and everyone will benefit. Sounds great, right?

Think of that the next time you are in line at McDonald’s having your order taken by a seventeen year-old pimple faced kid who is investing part of his earnings in the market. Multiple this kid by a few million more just like him across the country and try to figure out how these millions of dollars are going to affect your portfolio. These are the same kids we think will be devastated for the rest of their lives by seeing Janet Jackson’s naked breast for 1 second during halftime of the Super Bowl. Yet, we expect them to have the ability to make wise investment decisions that will impact their ability to retire in 40 or 50 years?

Now I am not saying that 16 or 17 year-olds are not capable of making sound investment decisions, but let’s be real - these kids are the same people who make decisions about what shoes to buy because their favorite athlete wears them or they stop wearing them because the popular kids made fun of them at school. If the Bush Savings Plan goes through, remember you heard it here first – hang onto your Nike, Sega, and whatever companies are hot in the eyes of people aged 16 to 25, because the stock price is rising.

Don’t like the pimple faced kid example? Think about all the great examples of future investors that show up everyday on Jerry Springer. I don’t know about you, but if you recently found out that your mom is really a man and in love with your little sister, I’m thinking you have bigger issues to deal with than determining whether General Motors will have a better price earnings ratio in the 4th quarter or what the long-term impact on the price of crude oil will have on shipping costs for Federal Express. Yet, under the Bush Savings Plan, these are the same people who will be gambling – and that is what the stock market is, a gamble – their financial future on stocks through their “personal accounts.”

That is not to say that people are not smart enough to invest their own money. I must confess that I am one of the more “educated” investors who did research, checked with my broker and promptly lost over $6,000 on Global Crossing.

What I am saying though, is that someone smarter than me needs to determine what impact these types of investments may have on the long-term strength of the stock market. How is this infusion of millions of dollars going to affect everyone’s current 401(k) or other investment plan that is dependent on the health and stability of the stock market? Let’s figure that out before we jump off the cliff and gamble our future on the Bush Savings Plan.

While we’re at it, let’s take some time to think about the future consequences on our society of the millions of people under the age of 55 who make bad investment decisions and reach age 62 with no money in their personal account, or who like me, stake their financial future on a company like Global Crossing. If they lose their money in the stock market and we no longer have Social Security, what happens to them? The way I see it, there are two possibilities and neither one is very appealing.

Either they keep working until the day they die or they join the legions of the homeless or near homeless.

Think about that the next time you are stuck in check out line in Wal-Mart where one of our more “senior” workers is struggling to find the bar code on a bag a chips or cannot figure out how to cancel out an item she mistakenly scanned twice. My mom struggles with getting her VCR programmed or retrieving her voice mails from her cell phone. If she didn’t have Social Security right now, there is a good chance she could be that check out lady at Wal-Mart. I love my mom, but quickly adapting to ever-changing technology is not her strong suit and I am now going to be late to a meeting because she is trying remember where the override key is.

Now, I am not saying that once you hit 62 you should retire and just wait to die. Our senior population is a valuable part of our work force and provides tremendous services as a whole. But just because they can work if their private investments do not pan out as President Bush is hoping, doesn’t mean we need to totally dismantle Social Security.

Social Security is just that – security. Social Security is there to provide all working Americans security that you can retire at age 62 and know that you will have enough income to pay for housing and buy some food. If you want more than that, work hard, save and gamble it in the stock market or some other investment opportunity, just like President Bush and other Republicans on Capital Hill want you to do.

Finally, my proposal for President Bush is this: if you are so certain that the Bush Savings Plan is such a great idea you should do what is the most American thing to do – create a reality TV show.

Think about it. You can ask some of your corporate donors to give 12 men and women under the age of 30 $10,000 each. They are free to invest it in the stock market for 6 months. At the end of 6 months, they will have to quit their jobs, and attempt to live their lives in the same manner for the next year. If everyone makes it through without losing their house, family, or having to declare bankruptcy, I say we rush the Bush Savings Plan through Congress. If not, let’s take some time to figure out how to make the current system financially sound.