AARP opposes partial privatization of Social Security
AARP has never cared about baby boomers or Generation X’ers, so I’m skeptical of its fierce opposition to allowing workers to divert up to 30 percent of their Social Security taxes to private investment accounts.
"We are dead set against carving private accounts out of Social Security taxes," said William Novelli, AARP’s chief executive officer. "We can fix Social Security without dismantling it, which is what private accounts carved out of Social Security do."
Allowing private accounts wouldn’t "dismantle" Social Security. But the larger truth is, the partial privatization proposal exposes Social Security for the hollow shell it is.
Why privatization scares. If Social Security had a trust fund with real cash – as all corporate pension funds are required to have – these private accounts would have no effect at all. It wouldn’t make any difference to the trust fund how each worker saved or invested the money.
But because Social Security relies totally on new workers (and soon, new workers who don’t exist) to keep paying its bills, any diversion of workers’ taxes becomes an immediate disaster.
There’s your proof of a program in crisis. Fix it.
Frank Warner
SEE ALSO: Test questions for those who argue there’s no crisis in Social Security.
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