About 20 years ago, I was watching the brand new coach of the Northwestern Football team giving an interview on a sports talk show. They were asking him how he was planning on turning around a program which had not had a winning season in about 40 years. His formula was simple. He hired assistant coaches from programs with winning traditions. He only recruited players from high schools with 8 or more victories in a season. During the new coach’s third season, lowly Northwestern played in their first Rose Bowl in over 4 decades. I have remembered that lesson to this day. The best way to be successful is to replicate others who are successful. Yet, that simple lesson seems to elude our national leaders, who are admittedly less concerned with trite little things such as success than they are with getting reelected.
Our Social Security System is going to fail. It is a Ponzi Scheme that is rapidly approaching it’s cross over point. That inevitable point in time when the collectors outnumber the incoming suckers needed to keep the pyramid in an upright position. If we as a nation do nothing, than the situation will resolve itself, and that resolution will be painful. Yet, every time we on the right suggest that we take on this looming time bomb before it explodes on us, we are accused of being the most heinous of animals willing to throw granny off of a cliff.
Here, are our choices. Do nothing, and then grandmas and grandpas all over the fruited plains will be in a world of hurt, literally thrown off a cliff by an electorate who heard only the soothing deceptions of the snake oil salesmen who benefited from the complacency of people who chose not to hear the truth, or we can do something about it.
You may ask what my solution would be, as solutions are never as easy as identifying the problem. I am glad you asked, because there is a nation that has a solution that is working out beautifully for them, and it is something which has actually been suggested by a former President of this very country in which we live. The model is provided by the once very poor and now suddenly wealthy Chile. Chile forces savings, just like our current model purports to do, only it allows its citizens to self direct a large portion of those forced savings, which is something the political left is claiming would cause an evil crash of our current system. So, why does it work in Chile? Why would it not work here? What is the real reason for the opposition to this system taking hold here in America?
Side Note:
In 1980, about 12 years after Chile instituted economic reforms and went to a free enterprise system, Milton Friedman had a 10 part series of debates where he and Thomas Sowell debated a bevy of the leading Socialists of the time. During Part IX of that series, Francis Fox Piven and Friedman got into an argument over Chile. Piven of course gave a dire prediction as to the impending doom for the poor oppressed people of Chile, who somehow were going to suffer as a result of their new found economic freedom. Fast forward to today, where Chile is now the shining example of a success story, and one almost every one points to as an inspiration of what a society is capable of.
Last night, I read the news that yet another of these green fairy inspired boondoggles has filed for bankruptcy protection. Of course, it was also revealed that on its way to the toilet, the boondoggle took the tax payers money with it. About a month ago, when Solyndra stood as the shining example of the dangers of our executive branch getting involved in the venture capital industry, Barack Obama said these words, “if you invest you money in and expect a return, of course your going to pick some losers.” Let that percolate for just a moment.
So, let me get this straight, I am not to be trusted with directing the investments of what I am told are indeed my retirement funds, as the government is better equipped to know what is best for me. Therefore, I have to tolerate the annualized return, which by the way is not actually what the investing results of this government run scam has been, of 1%. On top of that, I have seen the investing prowess of the folks in charge, and to say the least, I am not impressed. My question is this. How can I possibly do any worse? Why is it O.K. for the government to take ill advised and foolish risks on my behalf while telling me, I am not fit to make financial decisions for myself?
The Chilean model works, and ours does not. For all of his faults, some real and some imagined, George W. Bush was correct on this particular issue. In what alternate reality would my choosing to invest my retirement funds in a mutual fund be any riskier than Barack Obama investing them in his green jobs scam?
Cross Posted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.
Tags: Social Security
