Wingnut Presidential Candidate Herman Cain: Privatize Social Security Like Chile
Well, Haley Barbour might have bowed out of the GOP presidential primary, but we've still got wingnut Herman Cain in the running, who went on the air with Fox's Shannon Bream and recommended we privatize Social Security like they did in Chile under Pinochet, but don't dare call it privatization.
BREAM: Alright, will part of the tough solutions and will the strong medicine include entitlement reform? And how do you sell that to the American public?
CAIN: We have to go from an entitlement society, to an empowerment society. And what I mean by that, all programs need to be restructured. You can't just continue to raise taxes on these programs and decrease the benefits. And Representative Ryan's proposed budget is a great start in that direction. We can't just continue to do the same things we've done before.
For example, relative to Social Security. I think that we put the idea of personal retirement accounts back on the table and do what Chile did thirty years ago. They don't have the problem we have today. Now it got demagogued last time as privatization. That absolutely is not the case. We need to take that route, restructure Social Security so we can achieve solvency, or the problems we're encountering, the crisis that we now have, they're only going to get worse.
Someone needs to tell this clown that Social Security is solvent. And if he thinks the GOP ought to run on privatizing it, whether he wants to call it that or not, more power to him. That didn't work out so well for George Bush, but apparently he's got a short memory. We can fix any shortfalls with our system by simply raising the cap on payroll taxes, or better yet, lift the cap and make it less regressive while we're at it.
And if he wants us to follow Chile's model, maybe someone could direct him to this article -- Chile's Retirees Find Shortfall in Private Plan.
This guy Cain may not be a serious candidate for president, but he's got every one of the GOP talking points down pat. He sounds like a broken record like the rest of them. Lower taxes on the rich. China is going to eat our lunch, but no mention of our trade inbalances being a problem with them. We need to slash and burn the budget, but don't dare say we're going to do it at the expense of the elderly and the poor. And repeat endlessly that President Obama is not leading and say the words "the American people" as often as humanly possible during an interview.
And of course Megyn Kelly's fill-in Shannon Bream had to get in there that somehow a person who understands how to run a business can take that experience and be capable of governing. I've found that to be generally untrue because for the most part, and if you're a Republican or a Blue Dog Democrat, your idea of governing "like you'd run a business" means seeing how many of our tax dollars you can turn over to one of your campaign donors' profit driven enterprises that has no regard to what those taxpayers are getting in return for their money.
I was listening to Thom Hartmann this week and he was talking to a caller about how the Republicans just love privatizing everything and what that really means for workers in the United States far too often. I don't remember if it was just a friend of Thom's or someone in his family, but he was discussing how they were working for the government and they decided to contract out the work they were doing to a private company and they lost their job. And once that company took over the work the government was doing, his friend got hired by the private contractor that picked up the work to do the exact same job, and for a whole lot less money and with no benefits. The kicker is they weren't saving the government or the taxpayers any money with the cost of their contract. Basically they were just taking the money that used to go to that person's salary and benefits that used to work as a government employee, and funneling it to that company and their stock holders instead.
That's the America these guys have in store for us that want to "run government like a business." That's nothing but code for a race to the bottom on wages, scrap benefits and the social safety nets, kill every union contract you have in place and you workers left to deal with it, pull yourself up by your non-existent boot straps after we ask you to compete with slave wages in China. And in the mean time, oh don't dare to suggest raising taxes on the rich, or that's "class warfare."
Heaven forbid we point out that they really just want nothing but the rich and the poor in America so they don't have to outsource that cheap labor. They'll have it here at home and sadly, we're well on our way there now. I'm not sure what it's going to take to change that, but I hope the public being fed up finally starts getting some response from Washington if enough of us get out there and make our voices heard.
We've got a lot to make up for when wingnuts like this Cain are given national air time and treated as credible by a channel with millions of viewers.
lower the corp. rate to 25 percent. it would only impact one out of three US corporations that currently pay any federal taxes. You can never underestimate the right's enthusiasm for the symbolic.
santorum behind closed doors: "The bad news is Roe v Wade is still the law of the land. The good news is we've got these young tramps and the fetus assassins jumping through all kinds of fucking hopes in order to murder the innocent. I don't know about you, but I consider that a major victory"
"like they did in Chile under Pinochet, but don't dare call it privatization."
Ok, then how about brutal dictatorship?
"Americans aren't as stupid as Democrats think."
First, it is hard for me to listen to friends of mine who watch FoxNews and who say that FoxNews isn't slanted (and that it doesn't slam the president all the time, etc.).
Second, I think the title should be, "FoxNews knows Americans are as stupid as the Republicans think."
what, what did she say?
Never should we Privatize Social Security in our country! It would surely add to more of the tremendous corruption!
Hurray! Yet another Republican candidate for President. Keep it going guys, and I'll get the popcorn. This is going to be the funnest circus ever!
No one should listen to Cain until he tells us what happened to his brother, Herman Abel.
CaliforniaMike blogs at All Voices and at his own blogs, http://www.mikerappaport.net/onevoice and at http://oneminutewithmike.blogspot.com.
is he?
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
right, chile...with petraeus as the norteamericano pinochet.
where do they find these idiots? do they know (or care) that the world is laughing out loud?
never mind, answered my own question.
again, it makes perfect sense for those on Chile's "Wall Street.
"For those remaining in the government's original pay-as-you-go system, the maximum retirement benefit is now about $1,250 a month. The National Center for Alternative Development Studies, a research institute here, calculates that to get that same amount from a private pension fund, workers would have to contribute more than $250,000 over their careers, a target that has been reached by fewer than 500 of the private system's 7 million past and present contributors."
I'm no financial wizard but, hell, $25,000 at 8% compounded daily for 25 years will give you over $220,000. If you're a major fund with billions to invest you should be able to get that kind of return.
With just the cash in a box buried in your back yard you could realize a minimum income of $1250 a month for 16 and a half years.
Something funny is going on with these people's money. I think it's called "capitalism".
She's pretty.
mentioned the chilean social security system, they lost both houses of congress. not that it did the democrats and the rest of the country any good, but it would be fun to watch it happen again.
What a horrible idea. The system has been a disaster for the Chilean people. Tons of waste, fraud, inefficiency. Many people have been, and will be, left out of the system. This is from a few years ago. If the system worked well, it would be a bit more popular, wouldn't it?
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N144...
"According to the annual Latinobarometro survey, more than 80 percent of those living in continental Latin America and the Dominican Republic -- a region of 400 million people -- believe the government should control and oversee public services such as pensions, health and education, the annual survey showed."
"...In Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, some 90 percent believe that pensions should be in the hands of the state. All currently have private pension systems. Seventy-eight percent of respondents in Chile also believe the telecoms system, privatized 20 years ago, should be in state hands."
From 2005:
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/chile-s-priva...
Chile’s state-sponsored pension plans were created in 1924 and 1925, making Chile the first country in the Americas with a social security program, 10 years before the United States. The leftist Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende in the early 1970s expanded the program to encompass about 75 percent of the workforce.
...After the 1973 fascist coup headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, trade unions were outlawed, the minimum wage abolished, state-owned enterprises were privatized, and social programs were abolished.
...The first generation of Chileans is retiring under the system put in place by Pinochet 25 years ago. The plan gets no funding from employers. All of it comes from the workers, who are required to 'invest' 10 percent of their earnings in the plan, which is administered by one of 15 Pension Fund Administrators (two of which are owned by U.S. corporations), investment firms that charge fees for 'managing' the individual accounts. Today even the government itself and the AFPs have admitted that at least half of the Chilean people will never accumulate enough to be able to get the minimum pension equivalent to $100 (US) monthly. The Chilean Center for Alternative National Development (CENDA) has said that 'two-thirds of the population will never qualify for a minimum pension.' Manuel Riesco, CENDA’s director, added that 'the Chilean private pension system will provide pensions on its own only to the upper-income minority.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/world/ameri...
Michelle Bachelet is a pediatrician and a Socialist, while Sebastián Piñera is a billionaire businessman and a conservative. They may agree on little as the opposing candidates in Chile's presidential election, but they concur on one important point: The country's much-vaunted and much-copied privatized pension system needs immediate repair.
"Most people perceive the costs of pensions and the pensions themselves as unfair," said Patricio Navia, a political science professor at New York University and at Diego Portales University here. "Many of those who started work when the system was first adopted are realizing that they have not been able to contribute enough to get a significant pension," Navia said. He added that they resent "overhead costs that are so high" and have led to record profits for the pension funds that manage contributions, which are automatically deducted from workers' paychecks.
..."There are two big issues, coverage and costs," Andrés Velasco, Bachelet's chief economic adviser, said in an interview here. "Too many people are outside the system," he said, and too many of those in the system have found that "saving via the pension funds is quite expensive.
..."But even advocates of an untrammeled free market, like Piñera, the conservative candidate, are jumping in with criticisms, to the surprise of some here..."Chile's social security system requires deep reforms in all sectors, because half of Chileans have no pension coverage, and of those who do, 40 percent are going to find it hard to reach the minimum level," Piñera said in a televised debate with Bachelet on Wednesday. "This has to be confronted now, and we agree with Michelle Bachelet and will, I hope, join forces behind this large undertaking."
...(my favorite part) The key architect of the Chilean plan under the fascist dictator Pinochet was José Piñera. Where is Piñera today? He’s a senior fellow at the Washington-based, libertarian Cato Institute, one of the main proponents of Social Security privatization in the U.S.
this boob -- oh wait minute, yes I can believe it -- that this boob actually cites the Chilean government as an example of what we should do here.
Pinochet was the darling of the right-wing over here and there has been much evidence that American and International corporations backed Pinochet and his brutal take-over of what was a stable socialist country. The copper mining industry was one of the first industries that was de-nationalized and turned over to multi-nationals who skim the earnings right out of the Chiliean people's hands.
That this person would cite a country destroyed by a right-wing facist dictatorship is absolutely appalling and that he isn't even questioned on that is even more grotesque. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I remember hearing Jesse Helm rant and rave about all our "friends" over in El Salvador and San Salvador or the Phillipines who were being run over by the revolutionary peasants, taking their land holders and giving it to the unwashed, he'd plea, "Won't we do anything to help these fine American supporters?"
Code speak for "please help the corporations that pay me huge funds and cool perks to throw what shred of a moral self I had right into the waste can."
We're on a downhill slide. People should read up on what is was like for regular citizens to live under Franco's regime, what it was like to live under Pinochet, or the brutal dictators in the former Soviet satellite countries, or possibly Somalia, because we're going to be there sooner than later.
I'll never forget the coverage I'd see during the 80's of mothers who'd protest and hold vigils for their children who were "disappeared" during the Pinochet reign.
We will die for lack any sense.
First of all, how can the system be "solvent" when the country is not?! China is propping our government up with huge loans to keep us 'solvent.' But is that sustainable? NO! And especially not when we have massive trade and budget deficits. And when the WEAK dollar gets dumped globaly then how 'solvent' will we be? Not very..... SS, the $, and the USofA = NOT solvent! Get ready for the collapse.....
And if ya don't like my fear mongering:
From the link: Q.-"Can the Social Security Trust Funds remain solvent without making changes to the program?".... A.-"In the annual Trustees Report, projections are made under three alternative sets of economic and demographic assumptions. Under one of these sets (labeled "Low Cost") the trust funds remain solvent for the next 75 years. Under the other two sets (the "Intermediate" and "High Cost"), the trust funds become depleted within the next 30 years. The intermediate assumptions reflect the Trustees' best estimate of future experience.".....SO, we got 30 years of "solvency" if the dollar lasts that long.....
and....."The Trustees believe that extensive public discussion and analysis of the long-range financing problems of the Social Security program are essential in developing broad support for changes to restore the long-range balance of the program."....SO,...all we need is some "extensive public discussion" and the public will solve the problem! The public has been discussing ending perpetual war, raising taxes on the rich, and getting a health care system that works for the people.....how those discussions going!?...
Train wreck dead ahead. Prepare accordingly.
Cue the Kabuki....
Imagine the fun the banksters could have selling worker backed securities and derivatives gambling on who would survive long enough to collect. A booming market surge until the house of cards crumbled and left every one but the banksters with empty pockets.
http://mountainsageblog.com/2009/09/29/does-y...
Cue the Kabuki....
Just what we need. Another privatization scam to fix something that is not broken. I'm sure that would work out just fine with Wall Streets routinely engineered economic "crises" which would wipe out everybodies nest eggs about once every 8-12 years, while the criminals who run the investment rackets pocket all the wealth and live to engineer the next round of theft.
No mention by this stupid shit how poorly the chilean people who are stuck with their POS system are doing. the only ones who are obtaining any security are the ones who are getting the wealth of those whose life's savings have been
privatizedstolen.What a pity the FCC no longer works for the American People. No broadcast franchisee should be allowed to get away with defrauding the public the way FOX does.
necessary to keep up-to-date with my decision-making process as I continue to determine how God wants me to best serve our great nation."
http://www.hermancain.com/
it's a religion, it's a religion, it's a religion, it's a religion, it's a religion, it's a religion, it's a religion, it's a religion, ....................................................
thinking not required.
I see Herman Cain wants to emulate Chile under Pinochet. I guess that includes this:
Torture Under Pinochet
I just realized something. Think of the character profile for the generation of men who created the programs the right is bent on destroying. If social security or medicare were in any way even remotely socialist, they would not have been considered. If they made people lazy and dependent, same deal.
Privatize Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, ACA, Welfare, and the rest of those leaching safety nets, just like they did (a long time ago0 in HAITI!
Don't know about the rest of America, Mr. Cain, but if you'd like to improve MY standard of living, then, get your cronies to go down on their pizza prices. And quit shrinking the damn things! And for crissake, teach your employees the difference between regular crust and thin and crispy -- they get it wrong all the time!
Herman Cain is nothing more than the right's token black person running for President that allows them to think that they are not racist. His ideas come straight out of the right's playbook - eliminate the social safety net, cut taxes on the rich, flat tax, and the heck with the American people. Heck, I agree - if we are stupid enough to listen to these morons preaching trickle-down economics (which does not, and will never, trickle-down) then we deserve what we get - the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the rest of us just hang on, with no hope of ever improving our status in life, because the rules are so completely slanted towards the rich.
I don't think Herman Cain will EVER win the Republican primaries, but it allows them to think better of themselves, and ignore the "Obama is a monkey", "Obama is a pimp", "Obama hates white people", "Common wants to kill cops, and shame on Obama for inviting him", "Obama is the best Food-stamp President we have had", etc., etc. elements of their belief.
It is not enough merely to possess virtue, as if it were art. It should be practiced. (Cicero)
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