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Reform Thursday: Week Nineteen.

Thursdays are good days for reform, because they fall between Wednesdays and Fridays.

That's why WILLisms.com offers a chart or graph, every Thursday, pertinent to Social Security reform. The graphics are mostly self-explanatory, but we include commentary on some of them where and when necessary.

This week's topic:

Reform Is Needed Sooner Rather Than Later.

Social Security reform, according to some, is not an imperative or pressing issue. We have all the time in the world, they assert.

Well, take a gander at just how much more painful the adjustments to the system will be if we delay reform (.pdf):

Click image for original 77 page GAO .pdf report.

Our options for reform would also become severely limited, the longer we wait. Acting sooner has the following advantages:

1. Changes could be phased in, rather than abruptly implemented, giving people time to plan for the future.

2. Changes sooner rather than later would improve America's fiscal credibility in international markets. It would represent a willingness to tackle out-of-control entitlement spending, the most significant cause of U.S. budget deficits.

3. Imagine what the infusion of otherwise stagnant and neglected capital into the world's economic engine, the U.S. free enterprise system, could do for economic growth. Instead of sitting in a filing cabinet in West Virginia, Social Security funds could fuel investment, invigorate research and development, and rejuvenate productivity, spurring greater technological advancement and stronger long-term economic growth.

4. Finally, for each day without personal accounts, younger workers are being denied the power of compound interest.

Previous Reform Thursday graphics can be seen here:

-Week One (Costs Exceed Revenues).
-Week Two (Social Security Can't Pay Promised Benefits).
-Week Three (Americans Getting Older).
-Week Three, bonus (The Templeton Curve).
-Week Four (Fewer Workers, More Retirees).
-Week Five (History of Payroll Tax Base Increases).
-Week Six (Seniors Living Longer).
-Week Six, bonus (Less Workers, More Beneficiaries).
-Week Seven (History of Payroll Tax Increases).
-Week Seven, bonus (Personal Accounts Do Achieve Solvency).
-Week Eight (Forty Year Trend Of Increasing Mandatory Spending).
-Week Nine (Diminishing Benefits Sans Reform).
-Week Ten (Elderly Dependence On Social Security).
-Week Eleven (Entitlement Spending Eating The Budget).
-Week Twelve (Benefit Comparison, Bush's Plan versus No Plan).
-Week Thirteen (Younger Americans and Lifecycle Funds).
-Week Fourteen (The Thrift Savings Plan).
-Week Fifteen (Understanding Progressive Indexing).
-Week Sixteen (The Graying of America).
-Week Seventeen (Debunking Myths).
-Week Eighteen (Debunking Myths).

Tune into WILLisms.com each Thursday for more important graphical data supporting Social Security reform. We'll address more myths in future installments.

Posted by Will Franklin · 9 June 2005 11:33 AM

Comments

Posted by: Zsa Zsa at June 9, 2005 12:28 PM

Posted by: Cindy T. at June 9, 2005 02:14 PM