"If the left actually gave a rat's ass about whether or not the elderly had a decent retirement system, the arguments in favor of privatization would impress them, and they don't:"

Social Security, the most popular social program going, was created by left-wing Democrats very nearly over the dead bodies of conservatives. And nourished by the left.

How can you say "if the left actually gave a rat's ass"? I'm serious - what's the reasoning there? Where did that idea come from? Are there any more ideas in the same place?

Third, it was designed to be supplemental and guaranteed, not the investment with the best return. And as such, it pays for a lot of things which aren't direct benefits to you. If you die, right now, your wife and kids would get Social Security. Not a whole bunch, but something which could be supplemented. A slam dunk.

It's clearly not the best, or Federal employees would have to contribute. But privatization wouldn't make it better.

Fourth, did you watch the Enron folks talking about being broke now that the stock collapsed? What that did to their retirement?

Well, just wait until the bill for the tax cut and increased spending comes due. More money will be borrowed, long-term interest rates will go up, the money available for financing growth disappear, and the stock market will go down. Guaranteed.

Do you remember the fuss the last time it dipped? The idea of privatization of Social Security died, and Bush was being asked it he would have pushed the government to make up the losses.

And wealth isn't being created by privatization except in the form of driving up the cost of stocks without adding value to them. Wealth for the wealthy is being created, not wealth for the economy. I know, trickle down. You know what else "trickles down"? And on whom, the "tricklee", so to speak? And who the "trickler" is?

I just don't see it except as another rich-get-richer scheme which is made to sound attractive to the middle class.

A state not long ago had a property tax initiative. Limits on property tax. Stampeded many of the middle class, it passed.

Well, the property tax is possibly the fairest. There are tax loopholes available to the rich, but they usually own property.

Guess what. Large corporations and the wealthy saved a bundle. The tax losses were made up from increasing fees and taxes on the middle class.

There's a reason GWB is for privatization, and it ain't the welfare of you or me.

An opinion only.

Arf