[yldstrk]

Freidman is really hit and miss with his logic.

[steve-b]

San Francisco seems an unlikely home for the man who in 1962 first proposed the privatization of Social Security.
Asked why he dwells in liberalism's den, Milton Friedman, 92, the Nobel laureate economist and father of modern conservatism, didn't skip a beat.
"Not much competition here," he quipped.

The same reason was given by one of the estimated twenty-five heterosexual male inhabitants of the city.

[2banana]

"The beauty about social insurance is that it is actuarially unsound," Samuelson wrote in an oft-quoted 1967 column. "Everyone who reaches retirement age is given benefit privileges that far exceed anything he has paid in ... A growing nation is the greatest Ponzi game ever contrived."

"Everybody goes around talking about the problems created by the declining number of workers per retiree," he said. "How come life insurance companies aren't in any problem?"

The question is quintessential Friedman: simple, accessible and formidable.

Life insurance companies take premium payments and invest them in factories and buildings and other income-producing assets, Friedman said. These accumulate in a growing fund that can then pay benefits. Social Security, by contrast, operates pay-as-you-go, collecting payroll taxes from workers that immediately go to pay retirees.

Asked why, if Social Security is so terrible, it is the most popular government program in American history, Friedman replied, "Well, because why does a Ponzi game work? It's easy to understand why it's popular. So far, on the average, retirees have gotten more out of the system than they put into it. "

What about the fact that Social Security has reduced poverty among the elderly?

"Well," he replied, "what it has done is transfer a lot of income from the young to the old. It is certainly true it has made the old people of the United States the best treated old people in the world."

But why is that a bad thing? "Oh," he replied. "It's not a bad thing for them, but what about the young?"

It is welfare for the greediest generation...

[Tribune7]

Milton Friedman ping

[DManA]

You could say exactly the same thing for gasoline price controls.

"Anybody who has examined the evidence about the effects of rent control, and still votes for it, is either a knave or a fool."

[Tax-chick]

One of the greatest economists of our time. If he'd done nothing besides training Thomas Sowell, he would *still* have been great :-).

Good to see that the dear old gent is still kicking!

[mathluv]

Did you see this?

[Brilliant]

The only problem with privatizing social security is that it's too late. Should have been done when Clinton was President. Now it will only accelerate the collapse.

[griswold3]

Youth leans toward liberalism, Maturity towards conservatism, and after you turn 65, SOCIALISM.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Seems like Friedmann is the "Last Conservative Standing" for fiscal responsibility.