Sunday, December 26, 2004

SS Private Accounts

Generation of Debate over Private Accounts grows exponentially, as the time approaches for the return of Congress. The entire Scenario resembles a B-Movie horror film. Certain Observations should be advanced:

1) Almost Everyone agrees Private Accounts will not guarantee the level of Benefits existent under current law, even if they meet the growth goals of an overly-optimistic Commission.

2) The majority of Economists do not expect Stocks to continue the rate of Return expected by the Commission. This Author actually estimates that Private Accounts based solely on Bonds would do better than a mixture of Stocks and Bonds.

3) The Hip over Private Accounts forestalls actual statistical analysis of relevant data. This Author's solution states that Congress should table the entire Issue until the last year of the Bush Presidency, when promise of Political favors will least affect any decision on such an important Issue.

4) Bush's refusal to consider any Tax hikes anywhere guarantee disservice to all Americans, who will have to reexamine any passed Legislation because of innate instability.

5) Private SS Accounts, if including ability to acquire Stocks, will only worsen the balloon existent in the current Stock Market, whose current P/E ratios are unsustainable.

Modification of the current SS system remains the only viable Option. The Author has already presented two Proposals on this Site to alter the SS system in a sustainable manner. Americans should understand that as long as Seniors have political effect on American politics, a viable retirement system will have to be paid for. Efforts to distract from such payment only means additional cost to all American Labor. No Economist has yet stipulated what exact increase in FICA taxation would be necessary to cover the projected Shortfall--prime idiocy under consideration of whether to keep, or reject, the current system. Political Hip must be abandoned for rationale analysis, before Americans have a valid retirement system. lgl

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