I was at the movies the other night watching Life Aquatic, and in the pre-show entertainment an economics question came up from Econ4U.com:
20. How much money is currently held in the Social Security Trust Fund?
- $0
- $100 million
- $500 billion
- $900 billion
Now, I've seen questions from these people in the past -- they're usually personal finance questions, small business questions, and things like that. However, I guessed $900 billion, since after all Social Security Trust Fund is perfectly solvent until 2042 to 2053. (Those long-range forecasts are hard to pin down obviously). Imagine my surprise when Econ4U tells me that the correct answer is $0! They explain:
Zero. The taxes you pay for Social Security today are used to finance current retirees and other government programs (emphasis added). When you retire, taxes on current employees will be used to pay your benefits. This transfer system has worked well for the first 60 years of the program, but current demographic trends create concerns that employee contributions will not be able to sustain payments to the aging "Baby Boomer" generation in the near future.
If you would like to take a look at the quiz, check out question 20.
The company behind these questions appears to be the Employment Policies Institute, a right-wing economics think-tank. The seem primarily concerned with the minimum wage, but perhaps they just haven't gotten the memos yet on the importance of destroying Social Security. Stay tuned for more propaganda at a movie theater near you.
Okay, I've been thinking a lot about your post. On one hand, I can see why they said "zero": any surplus that soc sec collects doesn't just sit there; it is immediately loaned out to the gov't in the form of Treasury bonds. So, yeah, okay, it sorta "zeroes" out. I guess that's how Econ4U are looking at it?
On the other hand, it's not like those Treasury bonds are worth nothing. These bonds totaled $1.5 trillion at the start of 2004 (of course, what happens when, in the future, soc sec starts cashing in on those bonds is a whole 'nother story)
Admittedly, I still have a lot to learn about soc sec. But I still think it's a bizarre question. And yeah, deliberately misleading.
And why shouldn't it be destroyed? It doesn't work. We gave the government permission to invest our funds for retirement, however, they have provided neither security for the current generation nor the promise of retirement for our generation. Time to take back our money.
If I can get Badnarik up here to teach his Constitution Class, I think you'd really enjoy it.
L.
You're reasons are patently false. There is most definitely a promise of security for the current generation of retirees as well as our own, so long as we protect the system as it is.
We can't take back "our" money without picking the pocket of the elderly. Nor would such and act be good for the society or the economy. Without a social safety net: the poor would work long after they should've retired taking jobs away from the young; the middle class would become much more risk-adverse, and the weathy would merely get wealthier. Perhaps that sounds appealing to you, but that's not the kind of society I want to live in.
I believe in taking responsibility for my own future, and not paying into something which does not benefit me to do so. Remember, socialism is just communism lite.
L.
So, I'm really just a commie deep down inside? Is that a collorary to Godwin's law?