So say Joel Marshall yesterday (
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_11_28.php#004150) and so said me about a week ago.
If funders now have to put the FICA tax money into private accounts, you've now got buttloads of buyers (say, like me) who have no background or aptitude. Yes, you can study, and if you have the IQ, logical faculties and a self-preservation streak, you can learn.
But now, because it's government mandated, inputters are going to want a whole new set of laws, because they're going to think they're owed a guarantee on their investment they can feel assured of.
The propaganda line about investment income is 'risk-takers deserve their rewards,' but the reality is more and more of these so-called risk-takers perceive themselves as entitled to a return, as much as any SS recipient - more, actually.
Where there aren't returns, there will be lawsuits. There will be calls for legislation.
The markets will never accept the level of governmental interference that will be necessary if it's mandated that money be taken out of our paychecks and put into these accounts.
If a simpleton like myself could figure that out in 45 seconds, how can it be possible for the Bush administration and Wall St. to not realize it? We can say the Bush administration is stupid, sure - after all, look what fast work they made of Iraq (points out that one of the things enabling voters to can GHWB was that his war was well-past over), but the market isn't that stupid.
But then, they'll get their windfall either way, won't they?