In America, President Bush's political allies are raising millions of dollars for an election-style campaign to promote private Social Security accounts. These contributors include the financial services and securities industries. Apparently it could cost $50 to $100 million to convince the American people that privatising Social Security is a good idea and Wall Street well be helping out as best it can.
The truly moving thing about privatising Social Security is that Wall Street will not make any money off Social Security privatization. According to the research of the Wall Street trade group, the Security Industry Association, there is no money in it for Wall Street! And the SIA should know as it represents the common interests of nearly 600 securities firms.
So in spite of privatisation not producing a windfall for Wall Street, the security firms who will not make any money from it are going to lobby for it anyway. It is truly heart warming, indeed tear provoking, when you think about it. These people, these kind-hearted, altruistic, good, unselfish people, will be spending millions of dollars for Social Security privatisation without thinking of reward. They are doing it purely for the benefit of others. As their own research proves, they have no financial reason to do so. It is just because the Wall Street elite cares so about the little people, an attitude it is well known for. After all, Wall Street always spends money on things that will not make it a profit. We are truly lucky to share this world with such people.
If in doubt, look at Chile. There Social Security is privatised. Few would question the honesty and altruism of Pinochet's military Junta. The benevolent acts of the Junta are well known, from selling off state assets to the private sector for a fraction of their real worth to bailing out said investors when they faced hard times in 1982 their kindness knew few bounds. Their private social security system was of a similar altruistic bent. Indeed, so concerned that they would not be accused of ulterior motives the armed forces were the only section of the population to retain their old, inefficient, state run pensions! To this very day these selfless people refuse to partake of the benefits of privatised social security, refuse to pay middle men to look after their pension money nor entrust their futures to the steady hand of the stock market. And given how much "administration costs" these financial institutions incur in securing a bright future for all, the philanthropy of the military is shown every day!
Bush and Wall Street can be proud to stand in this same altruistic tradition as General Pinochet. We can be sure that the results of his scheme will be as successful as privatisation is in Chile.
And remember that it's your patriotic duty to support the President. As Republican representative Tom Cole put it, Bush "cannot afford to fail. It would have repercussions for the rest of his program, including foreign policy. We can't hand the president a defeat on his major domestic initiative at a time of war." So to be against the President's plan is not only narrow-minded and selfish, it is supporting terrorism. Wall Street knows this and refuses to side with the terrorists who hate us not only for our freedoms but also our altruism. Just look at the billions President Bush is spending in Iraq in order to get the country in the right condition to reconstruct it.
Some cynical people out there may question all this. They will argue that it is highly unlikely that Wall Street will be forking out such large amounts of cash simply because of the kindness in their hearts. Rather, it will be claimed, that they expect something in return. But this is just a crazy conspiracy theory. Sometimes these ignoramuses write whole books showing how out of touch there are with the kind altruists at the heads of our companies and corporations. One such person actually had the gall to write the following:
"Merchants and master manufacturers are, in this order, the two classes of people who commonly employ the largest capitals . . . The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public . . . The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it."
If you want to understand economics remember to avoid this whacked-out anarchist-sounding conspiracy nut. His name is Adam Smith and wrote this appeal to the crudest form of class war in a truly stupid book called "The Wealth of Nations."
At least Smith has the excuse of being dead. But that will not stop some other whacked-out anarchist-types repeating his cynical, class warrior nonsense. Ignore these people from planet wacky. Ignore their claims that there is nothing wrong with Social Security and that Bush's reforms are designed to kill it. These are the same kind of people who questioned the President on the equally serious threat facing America from Saddam's WMD. And we all know who was right about that!