Don't cut out the middle man

Yglesias said, "Brad Delong says he has five reasons to support Social Security privatization. I say all of his reasons are compatible with my preferred solution -- federal investment in a broad index of stocks -- except for a sub-section of argument."

So I went and took a gander at brad's reasons. He has some fairly high brow ones, but some simple ones. He left out cutting out the middle man and simplifying the system. A simple system (when dealing with money) means less money is lost in the process. The net savings of not passing the money to the government so that they could give it back to you, could be great. Think of all those government salaries that will not be paid because there is nothing for them to do.

Though I think I pointed out the problem with forced savings accounts. They are better than the government taking and hold you money, but not as good as you doing it yourself with out government interference. Your tax dollars are paying for the enforment of rules that force you to save, this is considered a good idea by many people.

cube