Page 1 of 1 pages
About the only thing I would disagree with in this article is this sentence:
“He could have added that the super-rich and their political allies continue to try to take away Social Security, too.”
It has already been taken (into the general fund) and spent. The “Special Social Security Bonds” are non-negotiable and simply amount to IOUs.
Here in Illinois I protested NAFTA’s passage in 1993 and countless times since as I watched my own business evaporate along with all the Manufacturing jobs. My city is now at 20% unemployment and people who cannot sell their homes (a huge glut) cannot leave to find work elsewhere.
The whole world’s economy is in the same mess and pretending it can be fixed by a return to massive borrowing — CRAZY!
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. “
- John F. Kennedy
Posted by whattheheck on May 5, 2010 at 5:16 AM
I love Noam Chomsky, of course. But his repeating this lie by Joe Stack is offensive: “Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was Social Security to live on.”
The United Steelworkers union worked hard to preserve the pensions of all workers at failed steel manufacturers. And it did so in some cases. The USW is an honest union and has never been accused by any government or law enforcement agency of corruption.
Whattheheck,
The only I would disagree with in your post is this sentence:
“It has already been taken (into the general fund) and spent. The “Special Social Security Bonds” are non-negotiable and simply amount to IOUs.”
I so tire of this mindless mantra. It isn’t true and there is certainly no proof that there is. No one is claiming this to be the case; not the federal government or anyone else.
The Social Security Trust Fund earns interest on the US Treasury bonds that it owns. This interest makes the difference lately between a surplus or a deficit in its annual accounts. Here is how the SSA explains it on their website:
“Far from being “worthless IOUs,” the investments held by the trust funds are backed by the full faith and credit of the U. S. Government. The government has always repaid Social Security, with interest. The special-issue securities are, therefore, just as safe as U.S. Savings Bonds or other financial instruments of the Federal government. Many options are being considered to restore long-range trust fund solvency. These options are being considered now, over 25 years in advance of the year the funds are likely to be exhausted. It is thus likely that legislation will be enacted to restore long-term solvency, making it unlikely that the trust funds’ securities will need to be redeemed on a large scale prior to maturity.”
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/fundFAQ.html#n3
And according to a recent report;
“For the budget year that ends in September, Social Security is projected to collect $677 billion in taxes and spend $706 billion on benefits and expenses. Social Security will also collect about $120 billion in interest on the trust funds, according to the CBO projections, meaning its overall balance sheet will continue to grow. The interest, however, is paid by the government, adding even more to the budget deficit.”
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/14/social-check.html
This means that the SS Trust Fund will have a surplus of $91 billion this fiscal year. So long as the economy turns up SS will be in decent shape for the foreseeable future. Much of the hysteria is unwarrented.
what you folks have missed is that these retirement funds weren’t meant to last.
the concept of social security and pension funds from a persons work were invented as anti communist propaganda to help keep communism out of the west, now many of you will say this is a crock, when did the pension plans start failing and social security start talk about going bancrupt?
After the fall of the soviet union folks, 6 months after the fall of the USSR our government started talking about getting rid of the welfare system, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to do the math folks!
this situation is called the rise of corporate facism folks, they no longer have the threat of communism to worry about and the are now begining to show the people the little more than serfs, with no right to a living wage, the people are being cornered onto into unending debt for ourselves and our decendants, our economy is based on debt, yet everyone wants to get out of debt and no one can figure out why we’re in a depression, its called the first step to SLAVERY folks, there is an old term ” indentured servitude”, the term used to describe the person thrown into slavery for not being able to pay off their debt, and this is something the corporate facists want back!
The REAL question here- DO YOU WANT THIS SYSTEM TO RETURN TO THE WORLD?
Posted by David Young on May 6, 2010 at 3:05 PM
I agree that we must protect entitlement spending both because it is needed by the poor and because it is the most effective economic stimulus. As far as the debt problem goes, Keynesian economist Thomas Palley provides an excellent analysis in a recent article.
“Debt provides consumers with a means of maintaining consumption despite stagnant wages and widened income inequality, while financial boom provides consumers and firms with collateral to support further debt-financed spending…The neoliberal growth model has a logic that begins with redirecting income from workers to upper-income management and profits. Workers then maintain consumption despite stagnant wage income by borrowing, while the nonfinancial corporate sector promotes financial boom via stock buy-backs and leveraged buyouts. Not only does that raise stock prices; it also transfers funds to households. These practices explain rising household and corporate indebtedness, measured respectively as debt-to-income and debt-to-equity ratios, and increased indebtedness explains the shift of profits toward the financial sector. Borrowing is facilitated and expanded by financial innovation and financial deregulation, which become essential to keeping the system going. Thus, not only does neoliberalism ideologically support financial deregulation; it also needs it, functionally.”
http://www.monthlyreview.org/100401palley.php
Financialization, entailing the growth of financial sector profits from about 17% of total corporate profits in 1965 to about 44% in 2002, was a strategy for sustaining GDP growth along with tax cuts for the rich and stagnant wages. It has led to massive debt. We can no longer afford the rich. A redistribution of income is necessary.
Posted by cabdriverinchicago on May 7, 2010 at 10:35 AM
Referring to safety net programs as entitlement programs plays into the hands of the laissez-faire privateers. While not wanting to adopt too many of the adversaries’ tactics, I think our side needs to get a lot less sloppy about ‘message discipline.’ The meme wars are real, my friend.
Posted by n8chz on May 18, 2010 at 11:55 AM
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Reader Comments
About the only thing I would disagree with in this article is this sentence:
“He could have added that the super-rich and their political allies continue to try to take away Social Security, too.”
It has already been taken (into the general fund) and spent. The “Special Social Security Bonds” are non-negotiable and simply amount to IOUs.
Here in Illinois I protested NAFTA’s passage in 1993 and countless times since as I watched my own business evaporate along with all the Manufacturing jobs. My city is now at 20% unemployment and people who cannot sell their homes (a huge glut) cannot leave to find work elsewhere.
The whole world’s economy is in the same mess and pretending it can be fixed by a return to massive borrowing — CRAZY!
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. “
- John F. Kennedy
I love Noam Chomsky, of course. But his repeating this lie by Joe Stack is offensive: “Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was Social Security to live on.”
The United Steelworkers union worked hard to preserve the pensions of all workers at failed steel manufacturers. And it did so in some cases. The USW is an honest union and has never been accused by any government or law enforcement agency of corruption.
Whattheheck,
The only I would disagree with in your post is this sentence:
“It has already been taken (into the general fund) and spent. The “Special Social Security Bonds” are non-negotiable and simply amount to IOUs.”
I so tire of this mindless mantra. It isn’t true and there is certainly no proof that there is. No one is claiming this to be the case; not the federal government or anyone else.
The Social Security Trust Fund earns interest on the US Treasury bonds that it owns. This interest makes the difference lately between a surplus or a deficit in its annual accounts. Here is how the SSA explains it on their website:
“Far from being “worthless IOUs,” the investments held by the trust funds are backed by the full faith and credit of the U. S. Government. The government has always repaid Social Security, with interest. The special-issue securities are, therefore, just as safe as U.S. Savings Bonds or other financial instruments of the Federal government. Many options are being considered to restore long-range trust fund solvency. These options are being considered now, over 25 years in advance of the year the funds are likely to be exhausted. It is thus likely that legislation will be enacted to restore long-term solvency, making it unlikely that the trust funds’ securities will need to be redeemed on a large scale prior to maturity.”
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/fundFAQ.html#n3
And according to a recent report;
“For the budget year that ends in September, Social Security is projected to collect $677 billion in taxes and spend $706 billion on benefits and expenses. Social Security will also collect about $120 billion in interest on the trust funds, according to the CBO projections, meaning its overall balance sheet will continue to grow. The interest, however, is paid by the government, adding even more to the budget deficit.”
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/14/social-check.html
This means that the SS Trust Fund will have a surplus of $91 billion this fiscal year. So long as the economy turns up SS will be in decent shape for the foreseeable future. Much of the hysteria is unwarrented.
what you folks have missed is that these retirement funds weren’t meant to last.
the concept of social security and pension funds from a persons work were invented as anti communist propaganda to help keep communism out of the west, now many of you will say this is a crock, when did the pension plans start failing and social security start talk about going bancrupt?
After the fall of the soviet union folks, 6 months after the fall of the USSR our government started talking about getting rid of the welfare system, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to do the math folks!
this situation is called the rise of corporate facism folks, they no longer have the threat of communism to worry about and the are now begining to show the people the little more than serfs, with no right to a living wage, the people are being cornered onto into unending debt for ourselves and our decendants, our economy is based on debt, yet everyone wants to get out of debt and no one can figure out why we’re in a depression, its called the first step to SLAVERY folks, there is an old term ” indentured servitude”, the term used to describe the person thrown into slavery for not being able to pay off their debt, and this is something the corporate facists want back!
The REAL question here- DO YOU WANT THIS SYSTEM TO RETURN TO THE WORLD?
I agree that we must protect entitlement spending both because it is needed by the poor and because it is the most effective economic stimulus. As far as the debt problem goes, Keynesian economist Thomas Palley provides an excellent analysis in a recent article.
“Debt provides consumers with a means of maintaining consumption despite stagnant wages and widened income inequality, while financial boom provides consumers and firms with collateral to support further debt-financed spending…The neoliberal growth model has a logic that begins with redirecting income from workers to upper-income management and profits. Workers then maintain consumption despite stagnant wage income by borrowing, while the nonfinancial corporate sector promotes financial boom via stock buy-backs and leveraged buyouts. Not only does that raise stock prices; it also transfers funds to households. These practices explain rising household and corporate indebtedness, measured respectively as debt-to-income and debt-to-equity ratios, and increased indebtedness explains the shift of profits toward the financial sector. Borrowing is facilitated and expanded by financial innovation and financial deregulation, which become essential to keeping the system going. Thus, not only does neoliberalism ideologically support financial deregulation; it also needs it, functionally.”
http://www.monthlyreview.org/100401palley.php
Financialization, entailing the growth of financial sector profits from about 17% of total corporate profits in 1965 to about 44% in 2002, was a strategy for sustaining GDP growth along with tax cuts for the rich and stagnant wages. It has led to massive debt. We can no longer afford the rich. A redistribution of income is necessary.
Referring to safety net programs as entitlement programs plays into the hands of the laissez-faire privateers. While not wanting to adopt too many of the adversaries’ tactics, I think our side needs to get a lot less sloppy about ‘message discipline.’ The meme wars are real, my friend.
MBT shoes to promote body movement, encourage the use of neglected muscle; improve posture and gait; adjustment and shape physique; help improve the back, buttocks, legs and feet; MBT help the joints, muscles, ligaments and tendon injury recovery; reduced on the knee and bone and joint stress. MBT shoes Its unique sole structure, which makes the wearer is in a naturally stable state, but through the balance of movement, that is by increasing muscle activity, to eliminate
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