Bush's Little Secret - a good commentary about SS acounts

[fryguy]

from the Valley Advocate, the paper that referred to DU as "hands-on democracy at its finest"

* * * *

Proponents prefer to call them "personal" retirement accounts, but that doesn't change the fact that private pensions fail.

by Joe Conason - March 17, 2005

http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:103804

Touting the benefits of the Republican plan to privatize Social Security, politicians and pundits assure us that these schemes already have succeeded in other countries, from Britain and Sweden to Poland and Chile. That argument tends to be most persuasive among those who know the least about the examples cited.

<snip>

While comparisons between the Bush privatization scheme and those overseas foreign systems are illusory and false, the urge to look abroad might still prove educational. If conservatives truly think we should learn from those foreign retirement experiments, maybe we should also examine the progressive social and economic policies in countries like Sweden and Britain--such as universal health care, free or subsidized child care, and free or cheap higher education. Why should we imitate their failures and ignore their successes?

<more>

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Why should we imitate their failures and not their successes?

Because their successes benefit the little people and hurt corporate profits. If Bush were to give an address at Gettysburg today, it would end with the sentence: By the corporations, of the corporations, and for the corporations.

[indepat]

2. Because every major RW initiative since the 1920s have been a failure,

massives failures, even total warfare, that strike at the heart of our society, his Republic.

[SoCalDem]

4. The businesses and the county would be better off in the long run

if we emulated them..failures and all..

Can you imagine the benfit to business if they did not have to worry about all the paperwork and wasted time entailed in keeping up with healthcare benefits?

Let's say a person makes $10 an hour and pays $50 a week for premiums...we can assume that the employer is at least matching it (probably paying twice that)..Nationalized healthcare would save the boss a lot of money and headaches, and would give the employee an extra $50 a week.. The boss could then afford to give real raises..which might make the employess a BETTER employee, and the stress-relief could make that employee healthier..

The extra money would certainly stimulate the economy..

Nationalizing healthcare, energy production/distribution, water purification/delivery, and enabling ALL high school graduates to get further education ..

Those things alone would lift a huge burden off the backs of MOST families.. The boom that would follow would be tremendous..

note to constitution freaks:
It's obvious that when the congress/president WANTS to, there are ways around that document.. When ONE comatose person can dictate massive changes, then why on earth would not the welfare and dignity of the whole population be less important and deserving?

[Wilms]

3. Kick n/t