Rothbox

This Sosh Scurty privatization proposal sounds suspiciously like one by Durk Pearson in June '05's issue of Liberty (article not online, it's at p. 31 in the deadtree, to which you should be subscribing anyway).

Compare:

It would create no new debt for the government because, unlike President Bush's proposal, the personal accounts would use only the surplus payroll taxes now flowing into the Treasury. That surplus will hit some $85 billion next year, and grow in succeeding years . . . Preventing that money from being 'raided' by a spendthrift Congress and White House could be enormously popular with a cynical public.

(HT Instapundit)

To this:

Simply return each worker's annual surplus payment in the form of a check marked "For deposit to a Social Security Roth IRA only" . . . The appearance of increased deficits from not allowing Congress to continue to steal the Social Security surplus from non-Social Security spending is not a cost of Social Security; it is a cost of a spendthrift Congress, and the blame should be placed right where it belongs---on those politicians who will not reform.

Yes, the DeMint-Graham-Santorum proposal uses the surplus to buy Treasuries, which Pearson disapproves because they would shift the moneys to a form of government debt, therefore a form of "I owe mes" that each worker writes out to himself. Pearson proposes Roths that channel the money back into the productive economy, rather than Ts that will have to be repaid by revenue taken from, in all likelihood, the same guy whose SS surplus bought them in the first place.

Still, I find it refreshing that some minds are still working at the SS problem and zeroing in on a particularly abusive aspect of the SS system, the misdirection of surpluses. I'd take pleasure in seeing that gigantic dripping teat being yanked from the lips of Congress.

Pearson's proposal also changes the incentive from early retirement to continuing productive work, anticipating significant advances in life extension. As they say, RTWT.

What the world needs now

is a Firefox plug-in that searches for terms among the online prediction markets, such as inTrade and StrategyPage.

Nodding in sorrowful agreement

. . . with Rivrdog:

I had just sat down to dinner, and the goodwife had the TV tuned to MSNBC to watch "Scarborough Country".

Joe Scarborough had some FB-One profiler on and they were speculating on what might have happened to Natalee Holloway, the high-school gal that was kidnapped on Aruba.

At the end, Mr. Scarborough gave us his theory:

SHE WAS KIDNAPPED BY A CRIMINAL GANG AND TAKEN TO VENEZUALA[sic] TO BE FORCED TO WORK AS A PROSTITUTE.

I almost fell out of my chair, because that is exactly what I said two days ago.

Although I think Saudi more likely.

Happy feet!

I can get picky about shoes, particularly athletic shoes. I'm a pronating walker with high arches. My #4 toes hammer, a lot in fact, so I need some extra width in a shoe to allow them to spread out.

I asked one of my young bucks today to help me pick out the right shoe at the PX. I want a cross-trainer capable of indoor running (or vice versa). He pointed me to the New Balance 717. No link available. Did he do OK or did he make sh1t up?

Bought them anyway, I have no way to tell if they're going to work until I put some clicks on them.

Where is Alvin Toffler's Third Wave of custom-manufacturing sized goods to order now that it's the Twenty-first Century already?

QftD

Justice Thomas, dissenting from the odious Gonzales v. Raich:

If the majority [of the Supreme Court] is to be taken seriously, the
Federal Government may now regulate quilting bees,
clothes drives, and potluck suppers throughout the 50
States.

And here's another:

One searches the Court's opinion in vain for any hint of
what aspect of American life is reserved to the States.

He's pissed. I'm pissed. We all ought to be pissed.

QftD

Says Uncle:

Private firms should not have the legal powers that the police have. Most police should not have the powers that police have.

Anarcholibertarians assert, among other things, that most if not all functions of law enforcement could better be left to the private sector. Uncle's post linked here explains my disagreement. I don't support privatization of certain government functions, just as I oppose the nationalization of private industries or having the government provide certain services.

Commonplaces for early the 4th of June

I have seen it and it does not work as a pickup line:
I am an unemployed Polish insurance executive.
Equally poor comeback line:
OK, but what are you going to bullshit me about?
What, really, is so wrong about lies so obvious that they must be jokes? (Because for some people these lies are not obvious. There are people who have to really work at checking your high-and-tight against your claims and calling you on it. These must be representatives of Dr Sowell's subject, below.---Ed.)

What would Thomas Sowell have to say about country music?

There is something third-worldly about the smell of a taxicab. Even if you catch one in south-central Missouri, the smell can take you back to Uberlândia or Santiago if the humidity is just right.