The Wall Street Journal has a great editorial on Social Security in Tuesday’s (8/22/06) paper. It discusses criticism of the current system. Some suggest that we will either go bankrupt trying to pay the benefits coming down the road, or we’ll have to impose a horribly high tax rates in order to pay them. The latter scenario doesn’t really work because extremely high tax rates would devastate productivity and we’d never have enough to pay the benefits.
The WSJ pooh-poohs these concerns with the reassurance that at some point benefits will be cut so it won’t be such a big problem. Benefit cuts is not the answer today’s seniors want to hear. I offered a better way out of the Social Security mess on a recent blog post. The WSJ also hints that private accounts would somehow make a difference, but they don’t explain this in any way.
I’m sure many are uncomfortable with my proposal to let people opt out. But if you compare it to the nightmare scenarios we’re facing under the current system, it’s gotta be better.
