'When the Markets Crash, the Elderly Shouldn't Crash With Them'
August 10, 2010
In advance of the 75th anniversary of Social Security this weekend, an editorial in today's USA TODAY blasts the revival of privatization efforts by Congressional Republicans and debunks the fear mongering over Social Security's solvency. It calls the problems "easily fixable," notes that Social Security is "perhaps the most popular of all government programs", and says of the "privatizers ... when the markets crash, the elderly shouldn't crash with them":
At a time when it's increasingly common to see impending doom everywhere -- terrorism, global warming, joblessness, etc. -- here's something Americans can cross off their be-very-afraid list: whether Social Security will be around so they can worry about all those other threats in relative financial comfort...Even if the trust fund is just IOUs, Social Security is still a moral and political obligation with few parallels in American society...
Social Security's problems are easily fixable...
There's no silver bullet, despite what privatizers preach about the magic of turning Social Security over to the markets. In fact, it's mystifying that anyone who watched his or her 401(k) stagnate with the stock market for the past decade would want to trade Americans' guaranteed retirement security for the unreliable mercies of the markets...
Social Security is, among other things, the nation's most effective anti-poverty program, and when the markets crash, the elderly shouldn't crash with them.