Post by superman on Oct 20, 2007 7:59:40 GMT -5
www.claremont.org/blogs/blogid.5816/blog_detail.asp
US Presidential Hopefuls Could Look to Romania for Guidance on Social Security
Since it is (for better or worse) election season once again, United States Presidential candidates, especially of the "conservative" variety, will be talking more and more about out of control entitlement spending in the US. Undoubtedly the two top offenders will be Social Security and Medicare. We've already seen Fred Thompson call for the Alternative Minimum Tax and Social Security benefits to be indexed for inflation while Rudy plays it a little safer by promising not to raise taxes for SS and look for a bipartisan solution to fix the problem. Mitt Romney echoed the no new taxes sentiment and added that a raise in the retirement age is something to consider.
Instead of politically correct solutions to Social Security the Republican Presidential hopefuls might consider what President Bush campaigned on (but has yet to deliver) in 2000: A Private Retirement Account System. And if they don't want to look to Chile for a successful example of a privatized SS system, they can turn to Romanian President Traian Basescu who is steering his country in that very direction. Under the new Romanian system millions of workers will be transferred into a private pension system where they are able to choose between 14 competing pension funds. Romania is the latest country to join 31 other countries that have recognized the need to change over to private systems or go bankrupt.
In the US, we don't seem to be moving in the direction of a Private Retirement System...nor are we even discussing the possibilities. That is probably because of the terrible results other countries have had with these types of systems. Take Chile for example where the private retirement system has been embraced by well over 90% of the population; where the annual return on investments has been 10% above inflation since the programs inception in 1981; and where a new sector of the economy has grown to compete for personal retirement accounts. That sounds awful to me.
The idea for private retirement systems came from the West-- likely from the minds of great American free market thinkers (probably from Chicago)...but we have yet to fight to have reform within our own country.
I'm not too worried though. If we can't count on our leaders to get it right, I am going to borrow an idea from my friend Mary Katherine Stout at the Texas Public Policy Institute and start a new organization called "No Way We Wont Pay." Memberships to NWWWP will likely be available in November of 2008.
US Presidential Hopefuls Could Look to Romania for Guidance on Social Security
Since it is (for better or worse) election season once again, United States Presidential candidates, especially of the "conservative" variety, will be talking more and more about out of control entitlement spending in the US. Undoubtedly the two top offenders will be Social Security and Medicare. We've already seen Fred Thompson call for the Alternative Minimum Tax and Social Security benefits to be indexed for inflation while Rudy plays it a little safer by promising not to raise taxes for SS and look for a bipartisan solution to fix the problem. Mitt Romney echoed the no new taxes sentiment and added that a raise in the retirement age is something to consider.
Instead of politically correct solutions to Social Security the Republican Presidential hopefuls might consider what President Bush campaigned on (but has yet to deliver) in 2000: A Private Retirement Account System. And if they don't want to look to Chile for a successful example of a privatized SS system, they can turn to Romanian President Traian Basescu who is steering his country in that very direction. Under the new Romanian system millions of workers will be transferred into a private pension system where they are able to choose between 14 competing pension funds. Romania is the latest country to join 31 other countries that have recognized the need to change over to private systems or go bankrupt.
In the US, we don't seem to be moving in the direction of a Private Retirement System...nor are we even discussing the possibilities. That is probably because of the terrible results other countries have had with these types of systems. Take Chile for example where the private retirement system has been embraced by well over 90% of the population; where the annual return on investments has been 10% above inflation since the programs inception in 1981; and where a new sector of the economy has grown to compete for personal retirement accounts. That sounds awful to me.
The idea for private retirement systems came from the West-- likely from the minds of great American free market thinkers (probably from Chicago)...but we have yet to fight to have reform within our own country.
I'm not too worried though. If we can't count on our leaders to get it right, I am going to borrow an idea from my friend Mary Katherine Stout at the Texas Public Policy Institute and start a new organization called "No Way We Wont Pay." Memberships to NWWWP will likely be available in November of 2008.