When I read Chile privatized their pension system in the 90s, and I believe Bolivia went on to do the same thing, I thought that it was a good idea that should be implemented here. Now that el Presidente Hierba is trying to ram it reform through the system, I’m not so certain. It’s hard to believe that there is a crisis if the system can meet its obligations for the next 4 decades or so. But, you can’t also argue that it’d be better for people to save on their own, using the market to get a better return on their investment than what one would currently get from the system. On the way home the other day, I saw the question for me framed this way and it’s how I think I’ll be approaching it: is Social Security solely a system for saving money for retirement or is it more a safety net there to help out if something really bad wipes away a chunk of all your savings?
As it stands, el Presidente Bush ignores Social Security facts as minor inconveniences to push through his reform agenda and the President’s administration is going after the AARP for using the word privatization to describe Bush’s effort to privatize Social Security. Meanwhile, democrats who oppose reform are proposing alternative Social Security reforms that don’t reallly change anything.