[Marxism] Got that AK ready?

[sabocat59@xxxxxxx]

Dean Baker: The Economists Who Missed the Housing Bubble Are Coming After Your 
Social Security 

Dean Baker UPDATED: 02/13/2009
Huff post

Word has it that President Obama intends to appoint a task force the week after 
next which will be charged with "reforming" Social Security. According to 
inside gossip, the task force will be led entirely by economists who were not 
able to see the $8 trillion housing bubble, the collapse of which is giving the 
country its sharpest downturn since the Great Depression.This effort is bizarre 
for several reasons. First, the economy is sinking rapidly. While President 
Obama's stimulus package is a good first step towards counteracting the 
decline, there is probably not a single economist in the country who believes 
that is adequate to the task. President Obama would be advised to focus his 
attention on getting the economy back in order instead of attacking the 
country's most important social program. The second reason why this task force 
is strange is that Social Security doesn't need reforming. According to the 
Congressional Budget Office, it can pay all scheduled benefits for the next 40 
years with no changes whatsoever.The third reason that this effort is 
pernicious is that this talk of reform is occurring with the baby boomers just 
as the cusp of retirement. Due to the reckless policies of the 
Rubin-Greenspan-Bush clique, this cohort has just seen their housing equity 
wiped out with the collapse of the housing bubble. Tens of millions of baby 
boomers who might have felt reasonably secure three years ago are now 
approaching retirement with little or no equity in their homes.Similarly, if 
they had been fortunate enough to accumulate any substantial amount of savings 
in a 401(k) account, they just saw much of this wealth vanish with the plunge 
in the stock market. The median late baby boomer household (ages 45-54) has a 
net worth of just over $80 including the equity in their home. This means that 
if they took all of their savings, they would have less than half of their home 
(assuming a median price $175,000) paid off, and nothing else.The median 
household among older baby boomers would be doing a bit better. With a net 
worth of $143,000, this household could have most of their home paid off, but 
nothing else. And of course, half of the population has wealth less than the 
median, so they would be less well-prepared for retirement. In short, the vast 
majority of baby boomers will be approaching retirement with little other than 
their Social Security and Medicare to support them. And now President Obama is 
apparently prepared to appoint a commission that will attack these only 
remaining pillars of support.It is especially infuriating that this task force 
is likely to headed up by economists who somehow could not see an $8 trillion 
housing bubble. The incompetence of such economists has inflicted enormous pain 
on billions of people around the world. However, unlike people who fail in 
other professions, economists who mess up on the job just get promoted so that 
they can do even more harm. My guess is that this task force will not be very 
popular except at the Washington Post and on Wall Street.
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