Molt Be Blog

I'm selfishly republishing an email that I wrote to my grandpa because I forgot to save it on the blackberry and have to save space, so I'll save it here:

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Hi to Greg!

What is your solution to the social security tax "problem"? My
immediate problem is income tax so I'm turning in to snooze on it!!!

Love,

Grandpa

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Grandpa,
They're actually supposed to talk about president Bush's social security “solution” this morning on Meet the Press, which I'm watching right now. This is, of course, after they do a quick discussion on the not so important topic of steroids in baseball.
My solution to the social security “problem” is based around the fact that social security doesn't have much of a problem. It might run out in 40 years, but allowing people to gamble a percentage of their paycheck in the stock market seems like more of a gift to wall street and the companies that they invest in than a solution.
I think there should be a new advertising campaign and some new marketing for the current social security system. Basically, it will be a “reminder” campaign whose purpose is to reinform people that social security is not meant to be a retirement plan for everyone, but for those who could not afford to save for their own retirement. A reminder that Social Security is not a govt. retirement plan, but a safety net. Given the way that Bush talks about social security, folks could easily lose sight of its intended purpose, since his plan appears to be tiny, govt. regulated 401ks for everybody. Can you imagine the reaction of red state voters if you told them that Bush's plan was really government regulated retirement with an increased risk of being broke when you retire?
What people really need to realize is that they just need to start saving their own money for retirement and think of social security as a bonus for them and a charitable contribution for those that weren't able to save money for themselves (though, I wish their were ways to differentiate between people who couldn't afford to save and those that were wasteful). A good idea would be to increase the caps on social security taxes, which according to the tv here only taxes the first $90,000 of someone's income. Good luck seeing Bush ever raise that one!
Overall, I think that people are talking way too much about something that is really a distraction form real social problems in this country like corporate control of the government and environmental policy, the lack of a real health care system, and an education system that favors those who can afford to live in wealthy school districts. I imagine that fixing some of these problems might lead to a country with more people prepared for retirement.
Are you and grandma worried about social security? I forget that you're already retired sometimes with all the piano tuning!

Talk to you soon,
Greg

PS - They just ran a pro-bush social security plan commercial after Meet the Press, which showed the true hypocrisy of the Bush plan. It starts by showing graphics explaining that when social security was created, there were 16 workers' wages supporting one retiree, that currently there are 3 workers supporting one retiree and that soon it will be just two. I find it very strange that after outlining “personal retirement accounts” very quickly, they don't show the graphic depicting the resulting ONE worker funding ONE retiree, which I think is what Bush is really proposing. Ha!