Read This, was supported on CNN with Lou tonight--- I should

[Jon8503]

have posted this here in MO but still as have not got over here much forget about it but thought this was a pretty good article about what is really going on with SSN.

For quite sometime, I have wondered about why Bush-Cheney and their gang are going after Social Security, the one government program that has done the most good for our people and is being run even more efficiently than any private retirement fund.Th answer to this can be found in an excellent article in the April Harper Magazine by Michael Hudson, Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. The article is titled THE $4.7 TRILLION PYRAMID-- why social security won't be enough to save Wall Street.Hudson makes the case that Social Security is not the one that is in danger of failing but many corporate pension plans are seriously underfunded and are likely to go broke.He cites the examples of GM,IBM and others.Bush is trying to save those corporations by laying his greedy arms on Social Security.His thinking is that if Social Security money becomes available to Wall Street, it will produce a temporary boom in the market ( a bubble so to speak) and these corporate pension plans will be saved. Systems like Social Security that take a long term view would be holding the bag when the bubble bursts. Bush can then say " I told you so".

Hudson in his typically undestated way calls it a classic Ponzi scheme.I call it a con, a scam and a ruthless defrauding of elderly Americans on a par with Enron, Worldcom and others.

[MissWaverly]

1. Recommended for Greatest Page

I knew this was a case of no lobbyist left behind, thank's for catching this.

[xray s]

2. check this thread out too

Insiders talking about this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=114x14733

[ellenfl]

3. it sounds like a continuation of bush's success in bidness. eom

[JDPriestly]

4. I have been telling everyone I know that this is the real

problem for some years now. Baby boomers have invested tons of money in the stock market through their 401Ks. In general, baby boomers have no other pensions or meaningful source of support in their retirement. Sooner or later they will be pulling this money out -- just to fix the roof and eat. The younger generation will not be able to put money in fast enough to compensate. One hope is that foreigners will invest big in our country. But, think of the consequences of that to our "democracy" and to our values and way of life. This is the real problem. We've got a huge bubble thanks to the 401K scam.

[grannylib]

5. Exactly right, been saying it for weeks to anyone who will listen when the

subject comes up. This is Wall Street Welfare, pure and simple. The memos that the blivet** minions go by when they have a totally screened/friendly crowd talk about destroying SS and how it will be the greatest victory for conservatives ever...
They hate it because it's successful, because it wasn't a reThug idea, and because they want the money for people who already have plenty (or would have, if they hadn't been so silly as to promise their CEOs millions in bennies, bonuses and stock options (win or lose, succeed or fail, work or retire, HERE! Have more money either way! Meanwhile, the laborers, true source of all wealth, will never have any of their own, the minimum wage bill having been shot down again. Wealth, hell...making ends meet and having six inches of rope left over would be a start....)
Neo Con Men pulling yet another Neo Con Job on the 'Murkin people.

[On Par]

6. It's the nail on the proverbial head !

[Proud2beLiberal]

7. What about this angle?

I've understood that the real reason for "personal accounts" is to pour money into the capital market which will benefit the top 2% who own most of the capital. I did not consider the ramifications of the baby boomers pulling money out of their 401(k)s, etc. Interesting angle.

But here is another angle I've been thinking about lately. OK, they set up the personal accounts. It's your money and you can choose from some range of investments and those investments will be adjusted from time to time. Great! But then somebody questions the constitutionality of forcing citizens to do something specific with their money. Remember, it won't be a payroll tax. It will be your money.

"We have no choice but to dismantle Social Security altogether.", the conservatives will announce, feigning sadness. "We fought long and hard to save it but the Supreme Court has forced our hand."

Behind closed doors the conservatives will be pumping their fists and screaming, "Yes!!! We did it!"

[newyawker99]

10. Hi Proud2beLiberal!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[swag]

8. PBGC says pensions are underfunded by about $450 billion total

in the private sector.

That's something like, what, three years of Iraq occupation (supplemental expenditures only, of course) right?

Hm. Kind of bad. Especially since there's no will to pay for anything in Washington - certainly not a PBGC bailout - those Republicans just borrow and spend and interest rates keep rising and rising on their debts.

Imagine the Bush-Frist-Hastert debt on your credit card, with rates rising a mile a minute.

And now the pension mess.

p.s. - not to be confused with "age wave" fear, as linked from this thread, which I feel to be unfounded, but that's a different discussion and I've had enough fights on DU lately to last me a lifetime.

[oxbow]

9. Blast the media with this!!!!!

It explains perfectly why Bush is spending 90 DAYS TOURING AMERICA to tout a plan he himself has admitted won't solve the problem. Maybe the public is ready to liste, seeing as how most of them are opposed to his plan in the first place.