Social security: divided we fall

FINALLY someone refutes the idiotic Bush rhetoric about Social Security. Thank you, Rep. Rangel.

Social Security is only threatened by privatization. Social Security is what keeps many elderly people housed and fed.

Who might benefit from "privatization" anyway? Well, we're expected to invest it all in the stock market; it will cost us to play that game. So the first to benefit will be the stock traders, who extract a portion of your invested money as fees for their services (let's call it a "privately levied tax," because it is). Stock trading is VERY restricted, a very private club. They're not interested in you, they're only interested in your money. Do you want to trust your future to someone who is only interested in your money?


But you have to have a certain amount of money to even make it worth their time to deal with you. So, if you don't have $1,000.00 or so (minimum) laying around to get started with, get started on saving that (if you work for minimum or near-minimum wage, you'll know how difficult this can be, but I don't think anyone more privileged can imagine). Once you get that saved up, it's time to look around at how best to invest.

Obviously we want to earn interest, to make sure our investment is growing faster than inflation (otherwise, we're losing money). Savings accounts don't do that. Ever. Checking accounts -even "free" ones, or ones that pay interest, cost money. Money market accounts and CDs sometimes offer higher interest, but rarely exceed the official rate of inflation, so we're still losing money on our money.

How much money does it take, to make money? Inflation right now is supposedly low -about 3-4%- but you should know that fuel and food prices are NOT included in that figure, so let's include that for our own adjusted inflation rate, which I'll estimate at about 7% (on the basis of the rising food and fuel prices I've seen, and which affect me directly). So, we want to be earning at least 7% interest on our money, just to be breaking even. To get rates like that, we would either need to a) have enough money to get a banker's or broker's personal attention (a mere grand is not enough, trust me), b) be really good at poker, or c) make some very lucky picks on the stock market. Or I suppose we could get on a game show and get really lucky, but in the end, it's all about getting lucky.

Luck. The real problem with having everybody depend on the stock market for their safety net, is that the very nature of the stock market is that someone has to lose. The whole point is "every man for himself." Every profit results from someone else's loss. Dependence on this cruel system is what got us this economic disparity in the first place.

Destroying Social Security in the name of "ownership" and "privatization," will only serve to send more money into the hands of the wealthy, and further isolate the less-fortunate in shitty minimum-wage service-sector jobs.

Divided we fall, my friends: divided, we fall.