Damned if you do, and...

["Steven H. Johnson" <info@sscommonsense.org>]

A couple of the conservative arguments on this issue have a 
damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't quality.

Example 1.  Return on FICA payments.  

Early generations got, oh heavens, MORE than they deserved.  
Oh, the horror of it.

Future generations are expected to get, oh heavens, LESS than 
they deserve.  Oh, the horror of it.

Never mind all the good that was actually done.  Let's make sure
we take offense, no matter what's happening.

Example 2. The Trust Fund.

We've looked into it, and we've discovered that the Trust Fund
is holding government bonds.  This means that the government
has been borrowing from the Trust Fund!  Shocking!

Of course, federal law prohibits the Trust Fund from owning any
assets except government bonds.  So naturally the $800 billion
that's held by the Trust Fund has been spent on buying government
bonds.  The Social Security Trustees would have violated the law
had they done anything else.

If we want the Trust Fund to run a surplus, so that the earnings
from its savings can help future generations with their retirement,
and then we don't allow the Trust Fund to invest in anything 
except government bonds, what should we expect?

Criticism, I suppose.  The point in the conservative case seems to
be that one should take offense, no matter what.

Of course, the real point is not to take offense.  The real 
point is to figure out the goals that the American people
want the program to achieve, then to design the most 
economically effective system for delivering on those goals.

-Steve.