Cash out of Social Security
Came across an article from 2003 (by Arnold Kling at EconoLog) about the logic behind Friedman’s proposal to transition out of Social Security. Friedman himself sums it up:
What you should do, in my opinion, is to give every person who now has a claim on Social Security bonds equal to the value of his claim, and set him free. Let him save. Let him do what he wants with it. That would not add a dollar to the debt we now have; it would just convert an unfunded debt into a funded debt.
Currently, government liabilities are hidden. We don’t let private companies account this way, why then the federal government? It isn’t privatization, it is transparency that would force debate on the issue. Unfortunately, Social Security lingers in the dark–to the tune of over $50 trillion–without resolve in Washington.
[...] is acknowledging the unfunded liability on the government’s balance sheet, something I talked about before. As a young American, newly in the workforce, each paycheck causes me to shake my head. I see money [...]
You are bankrupting your children « A More Inconvenient Truth
February 4, 2008 at 11:55 pm