If you’re not scared about Social Security, you should be

from Des Moines Register

What the heck is happening here?  

We believe there’s a plan at work: All the disruption at Social Security is designed to cause the program to eventually collapse.

Here’s the scenario: Continued declines in service lead to public frustration and anger. Citizens come to believe what they’re being told: the government can’t do anything well.  People lose faith in the system and become ready to accept radical change.

In other words, break it to fix it.

And the fix? Privatize the system. Let banks and financial firms run it. Turn Social Security contributions into investments in stocks, bonds, crypto or whatever. End guaranteed benefits and instead have every American responsible for their investment return, with some people succeeding and some failing.

President George W. Bush wanted to do this back in 2005. His plan failed because Americans liked Social Security and they had confidence in it. It also failed because enough members of Congress were independent-minded and wouldn’t go along...

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