Is Social Security Broke?

Over at Eschaton they're chatty about Social Security, and I got to thinkin'... "Those people are nuts"

Their general premise is that Social Security isn't broken, so there's no reason for junior to try to fix it, and they maybe right about Social Security's condition, but who's gonna believe 'em?

For years now, the left and the right have been playing the game of "Who should fix the ailing Social Security", and the dems have really been over playing it, 'cause they saw it as a winning issue. It wasn't, 'cause they never told you how they were gonna fix it, so the republican told you how the dems would fix it (raise taxes).

...but that's besides the point. What matters is that the general consensus was that Social Security needed fixing.

So now the big, think tank idea for the dems (and by "think tank" I mean Atrios) is that there is nothing to worry about, that Social Security is just fine.

Bullshit!

Social Security is a mess. I don't know how to fix it, but I know it's broke.


What the dems should be talking about, is how junior is going to destroy it.

10,000 is a marker for the stock market. When it goes too much over 10,000 it's inflated, and there needs to be an "adjustment". Which means a whole lotta people are about to lose their ass.

During the Clinton years, the tech companies needed to be "adjusted", because they didn't make any profit. Profit is important to the stock market. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see where Wal-Mart isn't making as much profit as they thought they were. No doubt that there stock will "adjust".

So let's say that you own stock. Today's stock market is floating around 10,000, so if your stock (in general) goes up, you should probably sell it, and let's say that junior dumps a bunch of Social Security money into the stock market, and let's say that your stock doubles in value. You'd sell it wouldn't you? And you'd make a lot of money doing so. And the poor sap who bought the stock with his Social Security money would lose his ass.

And that's called "one hell of an adjustment".

...a long time ago the stock market crashed, and people starved to death because of it. Then some dude named Franklin D. Roosevelt took a good around, and decided that there need to be a form of investment that was independent of the stock market. Something more "secure".

Today some dude named junior has decided that his friends in big business can make a whole lot more money if more people invested in the stock market, and people will starve, and people will die.

...and he doesn't care.