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If there is a loss of confidence in Social Security
ER — (archived)

it is because there is a lot loss of confidence in all our financial institutions, public and private, due to the the events that manifested themselves over the last year or so, but which have been falling apart for decades now. The government may be headed toward bankruptcy, but when it gets there it will find the financial sector waiting for it there, hands outstretched, waiting for the latest installment on their bailout.

For decades, the generation of the Depression wasn't about to let it happen again, and the idea of turning over all their savings to the private sector for investment was vigorously rejected politically. The safety net of Social Security was maintained, the last resort. But that generation has been dying off, and people forget. And the something-for-nothing mentality of the worshippers of compound interest has now infected even the most conservative members of society, who have always tended to forget wealth comes from labor, not investment.

Social Security was devised because history demonstrated the private sector could not be trusted to manage the savings of Americans effectively and honestly. They pissed them away in 1929, and they pissed them away again 80 years later, as soon as the rules were relaxed and people started looking the other way. Oh sure, there may be problems with Social Security, and I'm sure it would be much nicer if people could manage their own savings and retirement without government help and inefficiency. But as long as the only mechanism for doing so exists in the private financial system of banks, stocks, and investments, there must be some government involvement.

Wall Street and the banks simply cannot be trusted with other people's money. In both the Depression and the current debacle, the economic troubles have not come from war, or natural disaster, or plague or famine or any other external cause. The crash is solely due to the bad decisions (or sheer malfeasance) of the men whose job it is to make financial decisions. The causes of these troubles are completely man made. For the "financial community", the wealth of the American working man is simply another source of capitalization for their get-rich-quick schemes and sordid little manipulations. You are welcome to play that game with your money, but leave me out.

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