Re: "Rigid Class System in Europe" Bob Roll Comments

Bill C wrote:
Robert Chung wrote:


1. The problem of health care spending is about skeanaged and is running into the same, huge, aging demographic
wness. That's not the
problem with Social Security, so it's not the right comparison. If you're
worried about huge government intervention that's one thing, but huge
government intervention isn't the only way to manage the risk of
catastrophic loss.

Ok I don't see your argument; in both SS and health care you've got
primarily, working, under 65 year olds picking up the huge tab being
generated primarily by those over that age. As they demographic shifts
to an older society, as it is the burden becomes even more skewed in
both systems it seems to me.
Less people, making less real wages, to pay for more expensive
services for more people really seems to be the core of the future
problem to me.


2. The SS system hasn't been mis-managed.

OK? You are about the only person I've heard make that argument. I'll
agree that we are at least getting an early start on dealing with the
demographic shift and the decreasing real purchasing power of seniors,
but, again, I don't think it's been managed well at all.

What am I missing?

Social Security hasn't been mismanaged in the sense
of having fraud, waste, or inefficiencies, or even being
looted to prop up the current finances of the company
running it (which is the USGOV/ZOG). All of these things
_have_ happened to private pension plans.

The problems facing Social Security are manageable
with enough advance notice and political will (which is
in short supply) - I don't mean political will just to cut
SS benefits, but also to not spend our money on stupid
*** (estate tax cuts, vanity foreign engagements).
However, these demographic problems would exist
for any pension system, private or not. The alternative is
to go back to the pre-SS days and the indignities to the
elderly that caused the foundation of Social Security
in the first place. (Also, we could import more young
working immigrants.)

Bill (and HH), you'd probably like to read this article on pension
plans and spreading demographic risk/trends over larger pools
of employers and employees, by Malcolm Gladwell,
which appeared in the latest New Yorker:
<http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060828fa_fact>

I think this article marks the completion of Gladwell's
transformation from a neoliberal market-market-market-
solutions enthusiast into a classic social democrat, or even
an Old Marxist union man.

Ben
Old Marxist

.

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