Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Best Thing that Didn't Happen During The Bush Administration

In The Best Thing that Didn't Happen During The Bush Administration Robert Reich rubs it in that the Republican plan to privatize Social Security didn't happen.

"But had we privatized, they’d be totally reliant on the stock market. And look what’s happened to the market: Compared to stock values ten years ago, the S&P 500 has risen a little over 1 percent a year, adjusted for inflation. Even Treasury bonds have done better. Go back nine years and there’s been no gain at all. Go back eight years and the market has been off an average of 1.4 percent a year."

"Sure, the stock market has done well over the past half century. But there have been decades like the 1970s and this one, so far, where it’s been a disaster. That’s why we have Social Security – so that if your timing is bad and you get caught in a downdraft, you still have something to fall back on in retirement. "

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