Another Fine Mess

As I was reading the definitive article on the British Social Security privatization under Margaret Thatcher, ”A Bloody Mess”, I kept remembering what Oliver Hardy always said to Stan Laurel, “Another fine mess you have gotten us into.” George Bush having bungled understanding the report “Osama Bin Laden Determined to Attack the US” and letting 3000 people die on 9/11/2001 now wants to apply his intellect to Social Security. To merely underestimate the resiliency of opposition in Iraq and failing to find weapons on mass destruction that allegedly threatened our very existence, when there were none is apparently not enough.

As was with Britain in the early 80’s, US retires enjoy the benefit of a far reaching plan enacted 70 years ago in the midst of the worst financial crisis the United States faced in the 20th Century. A guaranteed retirement, an old age survivors and disability plan we call Social Security has enabled retirees, widows, and dependent children to avoid poor houses and earn college degrees and give back to our country far more that was given to them.

But “Ollie” Bush has a new plan, a plan that looks and smells suspiciously like Thatcher’s plan before it. As Norma Cohen pointed out since enactment of the British Privatization program, Britain’s retirements have shrunken dramatically and now are the worst in the G8.
It is a system so badly designed that retires are opting out by the thousands each year and it turned a surplus into a multibillion dollar deficit. So go start up the car, Stan. America is going for a ride.

-Thomas P Love