Social Insecurity

I keep avoiding the subject. If you want someone who is fixated on it and will answer pretty much any conceivable question you have, I hope you are reading Talking Points Memo. Or Jonathan Schwartz provides a number of links to explanations.


I'll take up the issue of what "young people" think about the SS fiasco for a short post here, though, because I've just read a couple of posts on the subject from those two sources. The first is from Josh Marshall at TPM:

Do reporters respond when the president tells flagrant lies?

(No, it's not a trick question.)

Today the president said: "Most younger people in America think they'll never see a dime [from Social Security]. Probably an exaggeration to a certain extent. But a lot of people who are young, who understand how Social Security works, really do wonder whether they'll see anything."

[...]

So here, for instance, he states that young people think they'll never collect Social Security benefits. Then he says that's "probably an exaggeration to a certain extent." And then he goes on to say that it's precisely the young people who are knowledgable about Social Security who think this. The clear implication, the meaning he intends to convey, is that this dire prediction is at least more true than not, when in fact, as we've noted, to the extent we can know anything about the future, it's not even close to being true.

The other is from Jonathan Schwartz at A Tiny Revolution:

In any discussion about Social Security, you constantly hear about a 1995 poll finding that more 18-34 year-olds believed in UFOs than believed Social Security would exist when they retired. This is always brandished as proof that we have to do something about Social Security.

I agree completely -- the ultimate arbiter of all public policy must be what 18-34 year-olds believe.

Therefore:

We must immediately start preparing our defenses against UFO attack!!!!!

WE CANNOT WAIT A SECOND LONGER TO DEAL WITH THE UFO CRISIS!!!!!!!!!

Dude, relax. I'm sure it's in our Star Wars plan somewhere.