Monday, August 16, 2010

Nobel Prize Winner Paul Krugman on Social Security

In an op-ed piece in today's New York times, Nobel Prize Winning Economist and Princeton University Professor Paul Krugman raises the issue of the intensifying political storm which is engulfing Social Security. Regardless of one's political beliefs, he makes an interesting point about the measures of sustainability of this 75 year old program. He states that bad-faith accounting does not allow Social Security to recognize its 25 years of surpluses as padding, due to the fact that it has no independent existence, but rather is a part of the general budget. The same politicos continue their argument to say that Social Security must stand on its own, because future surpluses are unacceptable. Interesting...

Making an argument using both of these tools is incongruous at best, and does not address the true issue of sustainability in light of total historical financial performance. Regardless of how readers feel about the future of Social Security, let's make sure we aren't being deceived by receiving only half of the story from those trying to sell a party line.

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