Friday, February 04, 2005

Social Security Flim-Flam: Class Warfare

As Warren Buffett said: "If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning."

If you want to see how well the richest do under Bush's plan to (apparently) default on Social Security Trust Fund bonds, look at this report from 2001 by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Some findings:
  • 95 percent of households would be net losers if the Federal government defaults on its debt to Social Security.

  • if the default takes place in 2002, it would lead to a net transfer of nearly $370 billion from households in the bottom 95 percent of the income distribution to the households in the top 5 percent.

  • the richest 1 percent households would have a net gain of more than $270 billion

  • the net loss from default to households in the bottom four quintiles would be equal to approximately 10 percent of a year’s income

  • the gains to the richest 1 percent would average more than $300,000 per household
It sure looks like Bush's plan is another battle in an ongoing class war. Sung to the tune of "What's good for Paris Hilton is good for the American Working class."

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