The Public Sector Is a Milk Cow for Private Enterprise

[Judi Lynn]

The Public Sector Is a Milk Cow for Private Enterprise

by Paul Craig Roberts / April 29th, 2015


Social Security and Medicare are under attack from Wall Street, conservatives, and free market economists. The claims are that these programs are unaffordable and that the programs can be run more efficiently and at less cost if privatized.

The programs are disparaged as “entitlements.” The word has come to imply that entitled people are getting something at great cost to everyone else. Indeed, entitlements have become conflated with welfare.

In fact, Social Security and Medicare are financed by an earmarked payroll tax paid by employees. (Economists regard the part of the payroll tax that is paid by employers as part of the employee’s wage.)

According to the Social Security and Medicare trustees, Social Security as presently configured can pay full promised benefits for the next two decades and with current payroll tax and demographic trends can pay 75% of benefits thereafter. Medicare can pay full benefits for 12 more years and 90% of promised benefits thereafter.

More:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/04/the-public-sector-is-a-milk-cow-for-private-enterprise/

[DJ13]

1. Excellent article, thank you

What the commission did was to accelerate in time the payroll tax increases that were already in place. In my opinion, this was done in order to reduce projected federal budget deficits that concerned Wall Street and Republicans. The consequence of the accelerated payroll tax increases is that over the next decades the programs accrued large surpluses in the trillions of dollars that the federal government spent on other programs, substituting for the surplus payroll revenues non-marketable Treasury IOUs to Social Security and Medicare. Far from entitlements worsening the federal deficit, entitlement surpluses have reduced it.

The real Social Security crisis is that the government does not have the money to redeem its IOUs.

The government, of course, will print money to bail out the banks’ uncovered casino bets, but not to bail out the elderly from the theft of their funds.

The government has wasted trillions of dollars on wars that have enriched the military/security complex by killing, maiming, and displacing millions of peoples in seven countries, but Washington “cannot afford” Social Security and Medicare. Representing the people is not something “our” representatives do. They are too busy representing a handful of private interest groups such as the financial sector, the military/security complex, and agribusiness.

[msongs]

2. you can thank our president and congress for this situation. here, have some TPP nt

[blkmusclmachine]

3. ,

,

[bemildred]

4. We have a predatory economic system, and are surprised at the Hobbesian results. nt

[appalachiablue]

9. +1

[swilton]

5. Socializing the risks

privatizing the profits = fascism....

[polly7]

6. Yes ...... and worldwide. nt.

[yurbud]

7. if Hillary wanted to win over progressives, she could say this

and then act accordingly.

[raccoon]

8. k&r. NT

[appalachiablue]

10. K & R.