----- Original Message ----- From: "Gautam Mukunda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2004 1:47 PM Subject: Re: Welcome to life in George W. Bush's America
> --- JDG <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > If only FDR could be held accountable for Social > > Security - a policy that > > has done far mroe long-term damage to this country > > than Bush's > > comparatively measly tax cuts will ever do. > > > > JDG > > Yes, but in the long term, we're all dead. In the > short and medium term, right up to the present day, > Social Security did an enormous amount of good. It > is, at the least, unreasonable to blame FDR for > reforms that may well have saved capitalism and > democracy itself just because later politicians lack > the courage to do something about them. One thing that is amazingly sad about this is how unreasonable older people are about what they contributed and what they received. I am proud to say that my dad was one of the few who understood that he got far more out of it than he contributed. I remember about 10 years ago, at a congressional forum, there were a lot of people his age who were convinced that they would be far far better off if they could have only invested the money they put in SS. I tried to point out how low the early contributions were, and how much they had received in comparision. Using the mean return in the stock market, they never would have done as well as they did with SS. My dad, for example, with a 10% ROI, would have had a nest egg of less than $80,000 when he retired. (This calculation, BTW, includes both the company and the individual contributions) in December of '81. There is no way in the world my folks would have received the benefits they had during that time. In 10 years of SS benefits, their money would have run out. Yet, folks in the same situation kept on talking about how the government cheated them. They refused to let me sit and do the numbers for them. I wouldn't really argue with the concept that, of the two parties, the Democrats have the more serious responsibility to talk straight facts about SS to the American people. But, I would argue it is the American people who have the most serious responsibility. One of the reasons that politicians lie to the American people is that, in many cases, the people want help in avoiding tough truths. Its not just Americans, obviously. One sees denial of tough realities around the world. In many ways, the US has been more sucessful than other countries in facing some tough realities. However, I think that we need to do a better job of accepting difficult facts. Dan M. > Or, to parse the blame out more precisely, in the same > way that _The West Wing_, of all places, did, because > Democrats think using Social Security as a weapon to > win re-election is more important than saving it, and > Republicans don't have the balls to take them on on > the issue because they think (quite possibly > correctly) that if they did they'd lose. > > There's a lot of blame to spread around in that mess. > It doesn't seem to me that much of it accrues to FDR. > > ===== > Gautam Mukunda > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > "Freedom is not free" > http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway > http://promotions.yahoo.com/design_giveaway/ > _______________________________________________ > http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
