On Tue, Jan 04, 2005 at 08:43:46PM -0600, Robert Seeberger wrote:
> In the ABC/Washington Post poll, there is a slight majority (53
> percent) in favor of "a plan in which people who chose to could invest
> some of their Social Security contributions in the stock market." But
> when a followup is asked ("What if setting up a stock-market option
> for Social Security means the government has to borrow as much as two
> trillion dollars to set it up, with that money to be paid back over
> time through cost savings from the current system?"), that 53 percent
> is cut in half, so only 24 percent of the public winds up favoring
> private accounts if that kind of borrowing is necessary to set them
> up.
The problem with these kind of sound bite polls is demonstrated
alarmingly above -- depending on how you phrase the question, the answer
can vary all over the map.
If they asked a 3rd question, should the government borrow a trillion
dollars to pay future social security benefits you might get one answer,
then if they asked should the government pay back the SS trust fund, you
would get a different answer. These sorts of polls are meaningless.
Apparently, people think that the SS trust fund is just like their
bank savings account, and there is a trillion dollars sitting in there
waiting to be withdrawn. (Unfortunately, not. The trust fund is just
pieces of paper that says that the government owes itself -- to "pay
itself back" the government will need to raise taxes, cut spending, and
borrow even more)
--
Erik Reuter http://www.erikreuter.net/
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