It seems most advocates of phasing out Social Security let out a squeal worthy of Deliverance when you insist they own up to naming their plan for what it does: namely, end Social Security. Yes, I know, many of them only want to ‘partially’ end the program. But anybody with the fiscal roadmap in front of them and a decent handle on policy geography can see that the ‘partial’ pretty quickly leads to the total.
But back to the main question again. Let’s take a hypothetical and see if we can clarify matters. We’ll call it 401k reform. And it’s a good one since so many folks have a 401k.
Under my hypothetical 401k reform we change all the stuff about different companies deciding how much or how little they want to contribute. And we also change the part about your having a choice about how much or whether you contribute; now, it’s all mandatory.
There’s also a change in the part about your choosing which sort of investments you want to place your funds into. Under the reformed 401k everybody’s money goes into government bonds in one lump sum pool. When you retire you can get your money, or rather, your slice of the pie back, with a few adjustments depending on how much you really need the money after all. Other folks may need it more.
And one final thing: the income now gets taxed when you earn it, not at retirement.
Now, if this 401k reform plan were on the table, wouldn’t pretty much everyone say: ‘Give me a break. You’re getting rid of 401ks and replacing it with some sort of weird government pension plan where all the money goes into low yield investments and it’s not even clear whether I get my return on what I put in.’ Most people would say — and most journalists would undoubtedly follow their lead — that calling this ‘401k reform’ was some cheap rhetorical hoodwink. As indeed it would be.
And that’s just what the advocates of ‘Social Security reform’ with private accounts are up to. They want to phase out the program; but they’re just too cowardly to say it. They lack the confidence of their ideological ambitions.
Even worse, I suppose, are the journalists who parrot this nonsense because they’ve never given the actual issue enough thought, or are too cowed by the parrot-masters. But let’s save that for another day.
