All Posts Tagged With: "Social Security"
Making 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 | J. R. Clark | 5 comments | ContinuedLibertarian Paternalism: A Test
Behavioral economics is a growing subfield of economics based on the finding that people are not as rational as economic models have traditionally assumed. Numerous experiments have shown that people’s choices are systematically altered in response to changes in how those choices are framed, even though the framing is irrelevant to the consequences of those [...]
1Jul2007 | Dwight R. Lee | 0 comments | ContinuedDownsizing the Federal Government
By Chris Edwards Reviewed by J. H. Huebert
1May2007 | Jacob H. Huebert | 0 comments | ContinuedEnding the Welfare State Through the Power of Private Action
Richard Ebeling is the president of FEE. Despair about the current direction of American public policy is easily understood. In whichever direction we look, government seems to be growing larger and more intrusive. For example, in February the Associated Press (AP) reported that in spite of the 1996 welfare reform, which has reduced the number [...]
1Apr2007 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Cost of the Federal Government in a Freer America
Richard Ebeling is the president of FEE. In February, President George W. Bush submitted his proposed federal budget for the fiscal year that begins in October. It called for total government spending of over $2.9 trillion. The administration and the Republicans in Congress insisted that this budget reflected fiscal responsibility and the promise of a [...]
1Mar2007 | Richard M. Ebeling | 2 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 | ContinuedA Higher Gasoline Tax Will “Solve Everything”?
Regrettably, I have to criticize someone who, in the past, I have admired a great deal. John Tierney is an iconoclastic columnist for the New York Times who has been writing on environmental issues for at least a decade. His now-classic 1996 Times Magazine story critical of recycling was a well-researched article that I have [...]
1Apr2006 | Roy Cordato | 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 | ContinuedThe Shady Origins of Social Security
Writing in the New York Times last January, Professor Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, described the creation of Social Security as though it were an act of divine intervention: “Social Security was created as an insurance scheme, not a pension scheme.” The passive voice is good for shrouding [...]
1Sep2005 | Sheldon Richman | 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 | ContinuedChoice Is Too Burdensome?
It’s pretty well certain that the money taken in Social Security payroll taxes would produce greater returns if invested by your financial adviser than it is likely to produce in the government’s pyramid scheme. But proponents of maintaining the Social Security status quo object that not everyone has a financial adviser, and if people had [...]
1Jul2005 | Aeon J. Skoble | 1 comment | ContinuedI’d Push the Button—To Establish Freedom Right Now
In April 1946, a month after the late Leonard E. Read established the Foundation for Economic Education, he gave a talk in Detroit called “I’d Push the Button.” He said that if there were a button on the podium that would immediately abolish all controls and regulations on the U.S. economy, he would push it. [...]
1Jun2005 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | Continued-
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