More on Social Security... Ideology

The New Yorker has a great article posted today by Hendrik Hertzberg, and Paul Krugman has been at it recently as well describing how Britain's privatization scheme of 20 years ago failed.

Hertzberg makes some good points in his article. Of which the Social Security crisis may be driven by ideology. For Real?!

I would like to add to this debate a couple more tidbits of info I don't see anyone geting to.

One thing you aren't always made aware of is that employers match your Social Security tax. Meaning they pay exactly what you pay per worker. It is about the only tax corporations are forced to pay nowadays. So Bush's plan, while being a windfall for Wall Street will (as his details become clearer mark these words) also be another tax break for corporations and for the selfemployed (which are also forced to pay double what you and I pay.

Wether or not employers should pay into the system is another ideological debate. But that is where we stand today.

As for the other point Hertzberg (and David Brooks) mentions is that privatization will make more Republicans. This is the scariest part of the plan.

It truly is a scheme to make more Republicans. Think about all of working America worrying more about the value of the stocks in their Social Security Portfolio than the air some of those companies polutes in their own backyard. (Chomsky had predicted this in his latest book hegemony or Survival, credit where it is due).

This will truly be the damaging part of Bush's plan and indeed will leave a legacy far beyond his years. It is a mind spawn of karl Rove at its finest and without the media being savy enough to come up with the consequences of these plans it may just work.

Profit over ethics has been the norm and the pointless Enron scandal has only been the tip of the iceberg. Even so these corporate criminals have not been punished properly and many are still at large taking steps to damage the people they require to make them rich.

So this is where we stand. If Bush has his way, he will get a Republican fledgeling constituency known as people 18-30 (you know the future voters). Once they awaken politically they will learn that a Republican turned them into little day traders with their retirement funds. They will have to pay for their own Disability insurance. While the land around them, the courts taht protect them, and the medicines they wil need to survive become poisons. They will love every minute of it, as long as their stocks go up.

We should fight this every step of the way here is a good start:

Moveon.org petition

Also Read This article in the NYT Magazine by Roger Lowenstein.