Believe it or not, we’ve finally launched into the beginning of our wild journey. After weeks of narrowing down our belongings, we’ve slung huge backpacks, a camera bag, and computer bag over our shoulders and hopped the Mexican border. Thanks to Paige and Pat for the unique goodbye: a u-turn in front of the dark, deserted Otay Mesa border-crossing, stopping quickly so that we could jump out. With a wave goodbye, we bolted across the empty freeway and passed through the clanging gate into Tijuana…
Posted by Emily Marie Stremel Mork at 11:39 PM | Comments | TrackBack
Tuesday, July 5, 2005
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Taking a Break from Domestic Politics
Next week, with backpacks filled to the brim, Emily and I will be crossing the San Diego/Tijuana border and not returning to California for a year. It follows that the postings on this website will change from that point forward.
Many regular readers may have never wandered over to the About section to see why this site was started. “Economics With A Face” is the planned title of a book I plan to write on economics during a trip around the world. This site will be home to our travelogue, and hopefully, lay the groundwork for the book.
But since I started this site, I’ve used this weblog to practice writing on various topics. Readers will know that two of my favorite subjects have been Social Security reform and immigration reform, both currently hot-button issues in U.S. politics. Once we leave the country next week we plan on also leaving behind these domestic disputes. I might find time to comment on them from time to time, but for the most part I’ll leave the debate to the various weblogs on the left sidebar.
For now, as a form of closure, I’ll post some final thoughts on both issues whose causes will hopefully be advanced during our year abroad:
Social Security
Whether you say it’s bankrupt or merely in need of minor reform, I think it’s safe to say that a clear majority now understand that something needs to be done about Social Security, even if few can agree on the specifics of a proposal. To his credit, President Bush has accomplished this goal.
The optimist that I am, earlier this year I was convinced that some form of voluntary private accounts would be in place by this summer. To me, it just seemed like a no-brainer. Social Security is currently run like a Ponzi scheme and, by the very nature of its Ponzi scheme setup, has promised to pay out trillions more than it will take in through payroll taxes.
What better way to fix this mess than to let workers put part of their payroll taxes in private accounts? Much like a 401k, this would allow all workers to build real assets for retirement, instead of being forced to rely on the tax payments of their children and grandchildren 40 years down the road. While it’s true there is no crisis now, in order to fix the crisis coming down the road people need to start saving for themselves and the quicker the better.
I assumed fixing the system would find bipartisan support by slowing the growth of benefits for upper-income workers coupled with frontloading the contributions to private accounts so that even the lowest income earners would be putting aside a substantial amount of money. (For example, the Ryan-Sununu bill is set up so that workers earning as little as $10,000 annually would still set aside $1000 a year in their own account for retirement.)
Unfortunately, as witnessed by the current state of Social Security reform, my optimism has not transformed into political reality.
Somewhat surprisingly Democrats and some Republicans in Congress have come out against both progressive indexation of benefits and frontloading the contributions to private accounts. But if you’re against raising taxes on the middle class, against cutting benefits for anyone (including Bill Gates), and against private accounts, then the only way you can find money to fix the system is to raise taxes on the rich. The problem is that you first need to define rich, and second, when you compute the numbers, that won’t be enough to permanently fix the system. Add to that the coming Medicare crisis and fixing the Social Security problem without raising taxes becomes all the more imperative.
You’ll also hear many politicians say that they’re not necessarily against private accounts; it’s just that right now we can’t afford “the transition costs.” Any time you hear a politician utter these words it means one of two things: they are either stupid or dishonest. I tend to think most lean towards the latter but either way they shouldn’t be in office. As I stated above, Social Security has promised to payout trillions more than it will take in through payroll taxes. Tackling these costs today instead of years down the road does not increase their magnitude in the least. Politicians know that fact. Yet, they also know that they won’t be in office years down the road, and thus, prefer to push off politically unpopular reform for someone else to deal with.
Alas, it looks like the strategy of opposing any and all reform has been an effective political tactic, even if reprehensible. Luckily this can’t work forever. At some point the Democrats in leadership positions are going to have to bring some ideas to the table. Having the basis of your political philosophy “Against-All-Things-Bush” can’t be a long-term winner. After all, he is going to be out of office in another 3.5 years.
So soon politicians on both sides of the isle will have to start putting forth ideas, and at that point, whether in 1 year or 10, I’m sure that good ideas will rise to the top. Regrettably, it’s taking longer than I originally thought for the simple reason that politicians are in charge of any reform. Many politicians believe that they are smarter than the average person, and they seek power with the hope of making a better world through their wisdom. Of course, the government is the means towards their end. Yet many miss the key point that the good of society comes not from a centralized government directing the masses, but instead, from each individual being able to live their life freely.
P. J. O'Rourke sums this up nicely when he said:
Individual liberty is lost when government stops asking ‘What is good for all individuals?’ and starts asking ‘What is good?’
Private accounts get the government asking once again: “What is good for all individuals?” These accounts would take away a massive amount of power from Washington and redistribute it to men and women across the nation. That’s a big pill to swallow for those who prefer to act on “What is good.” For now, I’ll stay optimistic and believe that politicians are going to have to swallow it sooner rather than later.
For those who still desire more on Social Security, scroll down on this link and review my old posts. I hope next summer I’ll be able to add another to the list stating that workers across this nation are accumulating their own assets in their own retirement accounts. It would be a triumph for individual responsibility and liberty.
Immigration Reform
This is another issue that I’ve been optimistic on, only to be brought back down to earth by political reality. When first proposed by President Bush, I though some form of his guest worker program would be in place before the election. Here we are a year and a half past the date of his original proposal and migrant workers are still paying thousands to cross the border illegally. (Yes Pat, I still owe you $5).
Still progress has been made. McCain and Kennedy have introduced legislation in the Senate while Kolbe, Flake, & Gutierrez have introduced legislation in the House. Hot heads on AM talk radio are doing their best to thwart any attempt to reform our broken immigration system, but in the end I’m convinced they will lose the battle of ideas. For the most part, their concerns about security and waste of taxpayer's dollars are overblown.
Getting 10 million illegal immigrants into the system, in addition to making it easier for those who want to come to this country and work, will be a huge plus for our border security. Those who do not come forward are obviously more of a potential threat, and immigration officials could focus on this smaller group. Similarly, if a migrant worker can cross the border legally to do seasonal work, immigration officials will know that those crossing out in the middle of the desert are probably not simply coming here to earn money.
Immigration is a clear benefit to our society. But instead of going into a detailed defense here I’ll simply direct you to my archive section, with special attention to the two touching stories of to Jose Antonio Gutierrez (here and here) and Rafael Peralta.
It’s not very often that a government bill would instantly improve the lives of millions within this country and at the same time improve our security. The bills recently introduced in Congress would do exactly that. The sooner they cross the President’s desk for his signature the better. Again, I hope I’ll be posting on meaningful immigration reform once I’m back in the States.
So That’s All Folks…
And with that I’ll put U.S. politics to rest on this site. Emily says she’ll believe it when she sees it, but truthfully I think I’ll enjoy the break. Instead of reading the news dominated by stories political partisanship, we’ll instead be writing the news ourselves, and approaching it from the much more pleasurable perspective of the importance of individual liberty.
Truthfully, I can’t wait.
Many regular readers may have never wandered over to the About section to see why this site was started. “Economics With A Face” is the planned title of a book I plan to write on economics during a trip around the world. This site will be home to our travelogue, and hopefully, lay the groundwork for the book.
But since I started this site, I’ve used this weblog to practice writing on various topics. Readers will know that two of my favorite subjects have been Social Security reform and immigration reform, both currently hot-button issues in U.S. politics. Once we leave the country next week we plan on also leaving behind these domestic disputes. I might find time to comment on them from time to time, but for the most part I’ll leave the debate to the various weblogs on the left sidebar.
For now, as a form of closure, I’ll post some final thoughts on both issues whose causes will hopefully be advanced during our year abroad:
Social Security
Whether you say it’s bankrupt or merely in need of minor reform, I think it’s safe to say that a clear majority now understand that something needs to be done about Social Security, even if few can agree on the specifics of a proposal. To his credit, President Bush has accomplished this goal.
The optimist that I am, earlier this year I was convinced that some form of voluntary private accounts would be in place by this summer. To me, it just seemed like a no-brainer. Social Security is currently run like a Ponzi scheme and, by the very nature of its Ponzi scheme setup, has promised to pay out trillions more than it will take in through payroll taxes.
What better way to fix this mess than to let workers put part of their payroll taxes in private accounts? Much like a 401k, this would allow all workers to build real assets for retirement, instead of being forced to rely on the tax payments of their children and grandchildren 40 years down the road. While it’s true there is no crisis now, in order to fix the crisis coming down the road people need to start saving for themselves and the quicker the better.
I assumed fixing the system would find bipartisan support by slowing the growth of benefits for upper-income workers coupled with frontloading the contributions to private accounts so that even the lowest income earners would be putting aside a substantial amount of money. (For example, the Ryan-Sununu bill is set up so that workers earning as little as $10,000 annually would still set aside $1000 a year in their own account for retirement.)
Unfortunately, as witnessed by the current state of Social Security reform, my optimism has not transformed into political reality.
Somewhat surprisingly Democrats and some Republicans in Congress have come out against both progressive indexation of benefits and frontloading the contributions to private accounts. But if you’re against raising taxes on the middle class, against cutting benefits for anyone (including Bill Gates), and against private accounts, then the only way you can find money to fix the system is to raise taxes on the rich. The problem is that you first need to define rich, and second, when you compute the numbers, that won’t be enough to permanently fix the system. Add to that the coming Medicare crisis and fixing the Social Security problem without raising taxes becomes all the more imperative.
You’ll also hear many politicians say that they’re not necessarily against private accounts; it’s just that right now we can’t afford “the transition costs.” Any time you hear a politician utter these words it means one of two things: they are either stupid or dishonest. I tend to think most lean towards the latter but either way they shouldn’t be in office. As I stated above, Social Security has promised to payout trillions more than it will take in through payroll taxes. Tackling these costs today instead of years down the road does not increase their magnitude in the least. Politicians know that fact. Yet, they also know that they won’t be in office years down the road, and thus, prefer to push off politically unpopular reform for someone else to deal with.
Alas, it looks like the strategy of opposing any and all reform has been an effective political tactic, even if reprehensible. Luckily this can’t work forever. At some point the Democrats in leadership positions are going to have to bring some ideas to the table. Having the basis of your political philosophy “Against-All-Things-Bush” can’t be a long-term winner. After all, he is going to be out of office in another 3.5 years.
So soon politicians on both sides of the isle will have to start putting forth ideas, and at that point, whether in 1 year or 10, I’m sure that good ideas will rise to the top. Regrettably, it’s taking longer than I originally thought for the simple reason that politicians are in charge of any reform. Many politicians believe that they are smarter than the average person, and they seek power with the hope of making a better world through their wisdom. Of course, the government is the means towards their end. Yet many miss the key point that the good of society comes not from a centralized government directing the masses, but instead, from each individual being able to live their life freely.
P. J. O'Rourke sums this up nicely when he said:
Individual liberty is lost when government stops asking ‘What is good for all individuals?’ and starts asking ‘What is good?’
Private accounts get the government asking once again: “What is good for all individuals?” These accounts would take away a massive amount of power from Washington and redistribute it to men and women across the nation. That’s a big pill to swallow for those who prefer to act on “What is good.” For now, I’ll stay optimistic and believe that politicians are going to have to swallow it sooner rather than later.
For those who still desire more on Social Security, scroll down on this link and review my old posts. I hope next summer I’ll be able to add another to the list stating that workers across this nation are accumulating their own assets in their own retirement accounts. It would be a triumph for individual responsibility and liberty.
Immigration Reform
This is another issue that I’ve been optimistic on, only to be brought back down to earth by political reality. When first proposed by President Bush, I though some form of his guest worker program would be in place before the election. Here we are a year and a half past the date of his original proposal and migrant workers are still paying thousands to cross the border illegally. (Yes Pat, I still owe you $5).
Still progress has been made. McCain and Kennedy have introduced legislation in the Senate while Kolbe, Flake, & Gutierrez have introduced legislation in the House. Hot heads on AM talk radio are doing their best to thwart any attempt to reform our broken immigration system, but in the end I’m convinced they will lose the battle of ideas. For the most part, their concerns about security and waste of taxpayer's dollars are overblown.
Getting 10 million illegal immigrants into the system, in addition to making it easier for those who want to come to this country and work, will be a huge plus for our border security. Those who do not come forward are obviously more of a potential threat, and immigration officials could focus on this smaller group. Similarly, if a migrant worker can cross the border legally to do seasonal work, immigration officials will know that those crossing out in the middle of the desert are probably not simply coming here to earn money.
Immigration is a clear benefit to our society. But instead of going into a detailed defense here I’ll simply direct you to my archive section, with special attention to the two touching stories of to Jose Antonio Gutierrez (here and here) and Rafael Peralta.
It’s not very often that a government bill would instantly improve the lives of millions within this country and at the same time improve our security. The bills recently introduced in Congress would do exactly that. The sooner they cross the President’s desk for his signature the better. Again, I hope I’ll be posting on meaningful immigration reform once I’m back in the States.
So That’s All Folks…
And with that I’ll put U.S. politics to rest on this site. Emily says she’ll believe it when she sees it, but truthfully I think I’ll enjoy the break. Instead of reading the news dominated by stories political partisanship, we’ll instead be writing the news ourselves, and approaching it from the much more pleasurable perspective of the importance of individual liberty.
Truthfully, I can’t wait.
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