In article ,
 Josh Hill  wrote:


> The worst that may -- or may not -- happen to Social Security is that
> the trust fund will run out some years from now and benefits will have
> to be increased less than they otherwise would be or payroll taxes
> raised. That's a matter of changing demographics, of people living
> longer. It's been fixed often enough in the past and it will be
> similarly easy to fix in the future, through some combination of tax
> increases or benefit increase reductions (benefits will still go up,
> just not as fast as scheduled). Nothing to worry about.
       But all of those demographics were supposed to taken into account 
with the SS reform in the 80s. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said so, so it 
much be true.


> *None* of this has to do with the efficiency of the plans. Efficiency
> refers to how much of the money that gets paid in to the plan gets
> paid out. In both cases, that's higher than it is or could ever be in
> private plans, which is to say that if you're given a choice between
> spending $1 on Social Security or Medicare and $1 on a comparable
> private plan, you'll get more bang for your buck from Social Security
> or Medicare.
 
            Since neither case do they have actually do anything but 
take the money at gunpoint and then disburse, they can be really 
efficient since they don't have to do anything. I defy you to find a 
scenario where a non-governmental entity can take their money at 
gunpoint and then disburse it without doing anything else. You are into 
comparing apples and Alfa Romeos. 

          Also from an economic perspective, especially in pension area, 
efficiency is not all that great either.  Taxes are, by definition a 
drain on economic efficiency. They only withdraw from the economy, and 
this is especially true in the case of SS. Which is better economically, 
a $1 that is taken out in taxes and then put into a bond that has to be 
paid back with interest at some point in time, or a $1 that is invested 
in building a building or starting a company or something productive.
          I'll grant that taking money at gunpoint and then merely 
disbursing can be done efficiently. No overhead at all in that scenario.
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32