When the uproar started over the President’s Debt Commission co-chairman, Alan Simpson, about Social Security and the cow, he had to be on to something. Former Sen. Simpson brought up a subject that established politicians will not mention, but know is unsustainable.
Currently, Social Security has commitments over the next 75 years that exceed expected revenue by $5.3 trillion and I am sure it will be sooner than that because Congress continually raids Social Security when it needs pocket change for a project. Economists have run the numbers and even with the recent market fall, a retiree could still have earned 15 percent more in benefits — and we are not talking about current retirees or those near retirement, but young workers who have years to allow their accounts to grow.
The government is not the solution and the private sector does just about any job better. We can look to privatize prisons, privately managed roads, etc., which will lead to lower taxes. Critics will point to the GM/Chrysler bailout and their recent profits, except that Ford had a profit also and they refused government money. I believe their turnaround was more due to bankruptcy and having to slim their companies down and cut the fat.
We need to let our politicians know that we believe in the private sector and its by-product, job creation, and want less government influence in our lives and especially our pocketbooks.
Todd Welch
Everett
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