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Last month I noted a method which has been discussed, by which Social Security could be made solvent. Quoting Wall Street Journal editorial board member Susan Lee:
If benefits were indexed to prices however, Social Security would, at this very minute, be in balance over the long-termthe system would be permanently solvent. Not only would future revenues equal future costs, but there would be a surplus!
Indexing for price changes alone would protect retirees, new and not-so-new, from inflation, thereby maintaining purchasing power.
By indexing on wage increases rather than price increases, Social Security benefits were increasing faster than prices, year after year—giving Social Security recipients the equivalent, not just of yearly salary raises, but of yearly promotions to new pay grades. It explains why the system was going bankrupt.
In last month’s post I observed:
It is encouraging that what Lee is proposing isnt some pie-in-the-sky plan that will never get a chance to be implemented. Its part of a plan that has been proposed by the Presidents Commission to Strengthen Social Security.
Even so, I figured the approach described by Lee was a great idea that was unlikely to ever see the light of day. However, it is now getting a major push from the administration:
The Bush administration has signaled that it will propose changing the formula that sets initial Social Security benefit levels…
Under the proposal, the first-year benefits for retirees would be calculated using inflation rates rather than the rise in wages over a worker’s lifetime. Because wages tend to rise considerably faster than inflation, the new formula would stunt the growth of benefits, slowly at first but more quickly by the middle of the century. The White House hopes that some, if not all, of those benefit cuts would be made up by gains in newly created personal investment accounts that would harness returns on stocks and bonds.
By indexing increases in benefits to prices, benefits would still continue to rise, so as to maintain their purchasing power, and the Social Security system, instead of presenting a crisis, would become solvent.
IM’ing with a friend who lives in India, on his impressions of the tsunami devastation:
For over a decade, rap music has used lyrics praising hostility of all different kinds—drive-by shootings; drug-dealing; cop-killing; and many kinds of hostility toward women. Anyone objecting has been told that they are violating the rappers’ freedom of speech. This has always been a disingenous argument. No one wants to make it illegal for people to say obnoxious things. They have the legal right. But others have the equally legal right to ask them to stop being unpleasant.
Finally, a group of people is speaking up that cannot be intimidated by the spurious freedom-of-speech argument. Essence Magazine is opposing the attacks made by rap music on women:
The most successful black women’s magazine, Essence, is in the middle of a campaign that could have monumental cultural significance.
Essence is taking on the slut images and verbal abuse projected onto black women by hip hop lyrics and videos.
The magazine is the first powerful presence in the black media with the courage to examine the cultural pollution that is too often excused because of the wealth it brings to knuckleheads and amoral executives.
...At a listening session that Weathers and the other staffers had with entertainment editor Cori Murray, “We found the rap lyrics astonishing, brutal, misogynistic. ... So we said we were going to pull no punches, especially since women were constantly being assaulted.”
...Essence has a year-long strategy that includes a town meeting at Spelman College in February.
Things are getting hot. This is a beginning that has been a long time coming, and it is good to see it all forming naturally with the women in the lead.
Kerry in 2008? Newsweek discusses the possibility of Kerry running for President next time:
He never quite came out and said it, but Kerry sounded very much like a man who was running for president again. He has a mailing list with 2.9 million names and an organization in every state. His moneymen have not backed away. By and large, Kerry has not been blamed for the defeat, at least not the way former vice president Al Gore was after the 2000 election. Some of Kerry’s followers are already plotting how Kerry can defeat Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses in 2008. The conventional wisdom, already congealing before Bush’s second Inaugural, pictures Kerry and Clinton as the early Democratic front runners.
I remember the same talk about Gore after the 2000 election. As late as 2002, a CNN poll found that “two-thirds of the public thinks Gore will be the likely Democratic nominee in 2004”.
The Newsweek article concludes:
As this reporter left his house in November, Kerry called out and followed him down the street. He wanted to show a letter from a schoolgirl that had been left on his stoop. The letter read, in part, “John Kerry, you’re the greatest!” Kerry looked into the reporter’s eye. “The pundits have never liked me,” he said. “Is it the way I look? The way I sound?” He seemed vulnerable for a moment, then caught himself, smiled and walked home to his empty house.
He’s still thinking the way to win an election is to make superficial changes in the way he looks and sounds, rather than in what he says. I doubt he’ll be a strong contender for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2008.
Via Wizbang, one of the most shocking tsunami videos I’ve seen yet:
Instapundit has additional tsunami links.
Political Cartoonist Ramirez Says the U.S. Supplies 40% of Total Worldwide Financial Aid. Plus, he’s funny.
A 10-year-old girl, Tilly Smith, recognized the warning signs of a tsunami, and saved her family and everybody else on her beach.
Tilly’s family, from Surrey, England, was enjoying a day at Maikhao Beach last Sunday when the sea rushed out and began to bubble.
The adults were curious, but Tilly froze in horror.
"Mummy, we must get off the beach now!" she told her mother. "I think there’s going to be a tsunami."
The adults didn’t understand until Tilly added the magic words: "A tidal wave."
Her warning spread like wildfire. Within seconds, the beach was deserted — and it turned out to be one of the only places along the shores of Phuket where no one was killed or seriously injured.
Last night, Tilly was being hailed as a savior.
"I think it’s phenomenal that Tilly’s parents and the others on the beach are alive because she studied hard at school," said Craig Smith, the American manager of the JW Marriott Hotel where Tilly’s family was staying.
He said a tsunami is not like you see in the movies, where a huge wave wells up on the horizon and can be seen for miles off shore.
"It is more like a sudden surge of water," he said. "There’s very little warning. She’s a hero."
Tilly shrugged off the attention and modestly said, "Last term, my geography teacher, Mr. Kearney, taught us about earthquakes and how they can cause tsunamis.
Her teacher deserves to be very proud today as well.
THE POLICE CAN TRACK LASERS? It looks like it:
A laser beam was aimed at a police helicopter Friday – one of several incidents involving aircraft across the country in the past week – and federal authorities were questioning someone who had been at a house where they said the light had originated.
Officials said no one was hurt when the laser hit the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police helicopter as it flew over an area where a similar incident occurred Wednesday.
Soon after, Port Authority officials and the FBI went to a Parsippany home where they had tracked the laser beam and were questioning a person there in connection with both incidents, said Steve Coleman, an authority spokesman.
Cool.
Kiev, Ukraine—A Massive New Year’s Rally at Independence Square (AP Photo/Andrei Lukatsky)
Kiev, Ukraine—New Year’s Day Celebration of the Election of Viktor Yushchenko (REUTERS/Anatoly Medzyk)
New Year’s Eve, Times Square, New York—A Moment of Silence Marks the Tragedy of the Asian Tsunami (REUTERS/Peter Morgan)
New Year’s Eve, London—An Image of Candles is Projected onto the Shell Building (left) as a Tribute to the Victims of the Asian Tsunami (REUTERS/Matt Dunham)
