They Think You're Dumb: Brian S. Stewart The seedy underbelly of the “No privatization!” crowd is that deep down they think we’re all too stupid to manage our own money. |
For all but one of the last forty years, your federal government has spent more than it makes. The last time the United States didn’t have a national debt, Andrew Jackson was president. And if you’re one of the 96% of Americans who pays into social security, these are the people that you’re entrusting with your financial future. Social Security was a good idea for specific time, but virtually all of the factors that made Social Security viable in 1935 are completely reversed in 2006. In 1950, the ratio of workers paying into the system to retirees receiving benefits was 30 to 1. Today, it’s 3.3 to 1. Tomorrow, it will be 2 to 1. Then the system will pay out more in benefits than it brings in. Once we reach this point, the possible “fixes” are a laundry list of bad ideas. A temporary fix, which Congress has already implemented, would be to increase the retirement age from the current 65 so that our elderly can work into their 70s just to collect benefits that leave them at the poverty level. Lawmakers could also decrease benefits across the board, meaning after paying into the system for 30 plus years you will get less of a return than ever before. And in any case, Congress will almost assuredly push for either higher income taxes, a greater percentage withheld from your paycheck in payroll taxes, or both. To ensure that these “solutions” can not be forced upon us, private accounts are the way to go. Allow young people to divert a portion of their payroll taxes to privately owned retirement accounts that the government can’t legislate away or outright steal. A private retirement account is the same concept as a bank account. FDIC-insured, generates interest, and most importantly, it’s yours. The naysayers point to some private accounts that are akin to playing the stock market and throw up their hands saying, “if it’s too complicated for me, it must be too complicated for everyone else”. This ignores the fact that you’re fully empowered to put your money into a simple retirement account that’s as risk free as the savings account you already have. This country stresses that all of its young people get an education and graduate college if possible. But the seedy underbelly of the “No privatization!” crowd is that deep down they think we’re all too stupid to manage our own money. If being told by Congress (that bastion of fiscal responsibility) that you shouldn’t have the right to manage your own finances doesn’t grind your gears, you need to wake up. Depending on the federal government to take care of you when you retire is just downright dangerous. We’re already seeing retirees working longer and longer to receive less and less in benefits. The only way to ensure that you’ll get your money is to make sure that it’s actually your money, put into your private account. Paying into “Social Insecurity” is no different that loaning money to a stranger for 30 years with only an “I Owe You” scribbled on a napkin as a guarantee of a repayment. If you dream of living your elderly years on government cheese and canned goods, bury your head in the sand and maintain the status quo. But if the government taking your money, against your will, to be put into a broken system that won’t pay you back seems just a tadout of line with what the Founding Fathers envisioned, speak up. Young people do not vote, so politicians do not care what you think. It’s as simple as that. By opting out of the debate, you let Washington continue to take your money, and scare the elderly into making sure we never fix the problem. Society tells us that if we get an education, we’re smarter than that. It’s time we act like it. |