All Posts Tagged With: "retirement"
Capital Letters
Where Is the Dollar Defined? To the Editor: I was belatedly reading in the November 2003 issue of Ideas on Liberty when I came across something that caught my eye. This was the statement in George Leef’s book review of Pieces of Eight by Edwin Vieira, Jr., claiming that the Constitution defined a dollar as [...]
6Jul2010 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedMaking Social Security More Harmful
Social Security is a fundamentally flawed system. If a private firm offered such a retirement system and made the same claims for it that the federal government makes for Social Security, that firm would quickly become a poster child for corporate fraud, and its managers would soon be convicted of criminal charges. There are two [...]
1Oct2008 | and J. R. Clark | 3 comments | ContinuedThe End Run to Freedom
What does the future hold for economic life in the United States? Will we move toward greater freedom or less? What role will ideas and rhetoric play, if any, in making sure that the direction is one that lovers of freedom prefer?
1Jun2006 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedSocial Security and the Insurance Illusion
In 1937, shortly after Franklin Roosevelt threatened to destroy the independence of the Supreme Court by “packing” it with ideological cronies, the Court came to heel and handed down verdicts in three cases affirming that the Social Security Act was, unlike several structurally similar pieces of pre-intimidation New Deal legislation, in accord with the U.S. [...]
1Sep2005 | Will Wilkinson | 3 comments | ContinuedAbolishing Social Security–Through REAL Privatization!
If the revenues from the sales of government lands and the accompanying mineral rights were to come even close to their current estimated market values, their privatization would equal the projected present value of all Society Security obligations over the next 75 years.
1Sep2005 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedLife, Liberty, and Retirement Pensions
The right to acquire property is a staple of liberal political theory. But why would anyone bother accumulating property? If my monthly expenses are a thousand dollars, then what use could I possibly have for any monthly income larger than a thousand dollars? I could plausibly reason that if I work harder today, I might [...]
1Sep2005 | Aeon J. Skoble | 1 comment | ContinuedOpponents of the "Crown Jewel"
There was a time when self-reliance wasn’t such a tough sell. Today, however, the thought of dismantling Social Security strikes most as somehow un-American. It is, after all, the “cornerstone of the New Deal.” It saved the poor and elderly from indigence and provided dignity in a monthly paycheck. Legend has it that 70 years [...]
1Sep2005 | Jude Blanchette | 1 comment | ContinuedYes, Virginia, There Is a Social Security Trust Fund
My 12-year-old niece, Virginia, wrote me this letter. My reply follows. “Dear Uncle John, I have a teacher, Mr. Pyrrho, who says there is no trust fund for Social Security. When I asked Mom about this, she said, “Ask your Uncle John. If he agrees then it must be so.” Please tell me the truth, [...]
1Sep2005 | John D. McGinnis | 0 comments | ContinuedSocial Security Can Be Good for Your Health
Until recently I took every opportunity to inform my students about the financial fraud of Social Security. Given demographic realities and the Ponzi-scheme nature of Social Security, those about to enter the work force will receive an anemic return on their “investment,” assuming they receive any return at all. They would be far better off, [...]
1Sep2005 | Dwight R. Lee | 3 comments | Continued"If We Had No Social Security, Many People Would Go Hungry"
Compulsory Social Security has been the law of the land for almost three generations, and many citizens of the United States are now convinced that they couldn’t get along without it. To express doubts about the propriety of the program is to invite the question: “Would you let them starve?” Many Americans are old enough [...]
1Sep2005 | Paul L. Poirot | 2 comments | ContinuedIs Social Security Reform Paternalistic?
One great, and valid, complaint about Social Security is that it is paternalistic: it does things for the individual that he should do for himself. In so doing, it commits the twin transgressions of forcing some people to support others and making the beneficiaries the servile dependents of the state.
1Jan2004 | John Attarian | 1 comment | ContinuedAt Least Ponzi Didn’t Threaten Violence
Suppose while perusing your annuity fund’s quarterly statement you read: “By 2038, the funds will be exhausted and the contemporary contributions will be enough to pay only about 73 percent of benefits owed.” Your emotions might run the gamut from outrage to fear. In the wake of the Enron, WorldCom, and (insert the latest name) [...]
1Mar2003 | David G. Surdam | 0 comments | ContinuedSocial Security Privatization: A Personal View
The increasing interest in replacing Social Security with private retirement accounts has spawned worries that people’s retirement money would be too much at risk. I have experience with both Social Security and a private investment program and have learned something about the relative performance of each. Beginning in 1943 when I worked summers while in [...]
1Jul2002 | Roger M. Clites | 1 comment | ContinuedTyrannical Wrecks
Tom Siems is a senior economist and policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and a board member of the Cato Institute’s Project on Social Security Privatization. Once upon a time, there lived a small herd of dinosaurs that longed for freedom and individual opportunity. To pursue that dream the small herd left [...]
1Jan2002 | Tom Siems | 0 comments | ContinuedUncle Sam’s Retirement Scam
Doug Bandow, a nationally syndicated columnist, is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the author and editor of several books. The legendary third rail of American politics, Social Security, is lighting up. The administration has proposed to move, ever so gently, toward a private system, while a bipartisan congressional coalition is determined to [...]
1Jan2002 | Doug Bandow | 0 comments | ContinuedPrivate Investment Is More Risky than Social Security?
The week ending April 14 witnessed a 6 percent drop in the Dow Jones Industrials Index, while the NASDAQ fell a precipitous 26 percent. The markets are sure to bounce back, but could the lasting victim be the movement to privatize Social Security? Opponents of privatization, which would let workers invest in personal retirement accounts [...]
1Aug2000 | Andrew G. Biggs | 0 comments | ContinuedIf Rates of Return Matter, Social Security Is a Goner
When President Clinton called for “a national conversation” on Social Security a few months ago, he probably didn’t expect that privatizing the whole thing would quickly become the talk of the country. But that’s exactly what has happened. The new national willingness to explore options that previously were politically untouchable now seems so promising that [...]
1Sep1998 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | Continued-
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