While I have to say that I was impressed at Steven Johnson's way with figures, his rearangement of the S & P 500 performance over the past 70 years is misleading, at best! 11% is still 11% and no amount of juggling of numbers can alleviate that fact and his attempt to downplay that return by eliminating 3.5%,for instance, by simply calling it inflation is to suggest that, that's not a vital part of an investment strategy.
As he included me amongst others who are calling for privatization I feel it necessary to remind him that my suggestions do not call for a total privatization of SS but rather a privatization of the surplus, only until the year 2013 when the surplus will be needed to bolster the short fall in SS. With so many currently on SS and others close to that period of life, we cannot totally eliminate SS but we do have to address the issue of extending the total solvency as best we can and with as little pain as possible. Privatization of the surplus will at least insure that funds will be available in the year 2013 and beyond. Funds not made available from further tax increases! As it stands now, those funds will NOT be available. Instead of excercising numbers and predictions from " S curves" I would suggest he might put his pencil to work and determine, from projected surpluses (till 2013) what this might mean in terms of the solvency of SS. I for one, would like very much to see this data and it's projected impact.
I am not, however, suggesting that my proposal will extend SS solvency beyond 2032 but rather buy us some time to create longer term solutions.
