1. Once again Clinton is
playing with the Social Security surplus. This 11% still comes from money that was
collected for Social Security. Now Clinton wants to divert it away from the Social
Security Trust Fund, a manuever that could cause problems for Social Security in the
future.
2. Setting up individual
accounts to invest in the stock market has been tried in others countries and proved to be
a boon to the investment community, but not to working people:
• In Chile,
Pinochet’s military dictatorship ended the system of social security in 1981 and
instituted individual accounts with private pension companies, requiring workers to
contribute 10% of their wages. Initially, pouring huge amounts of money into the stock
market artificially raised prices, however, the economic downturn has now driven down the
same stocks and the average return is a 2.5% annual loss. The result is that 60-70% of the
population will not even receive what was once considered to be a minimum pension, while
the private pension companies report 20% in profits.
• In Britain, Margaret
Thatcher’s conservative government set up incentives to persuade workers to drop
their guaranteed pension plans and replace them with individual accounts. Now a huge
scandal has erupted over the "pension misselling" that has cheated over 2
million workers out of a good pension because of the dishonest advice of insurance
companies and investors.
