Social Security, School Vouchers, And Class Warfare

Social Security, what is the concept?

Social Security (United States) Wikipedia ..... In the calendar year 2004, it paid out almost $500 billion in benefits. .....

School vouchers Wikipedia .....

On Social Security the W crowd suggests private accounts. On public education they propose test scores and school vouchers. Both are lousy policy but smart politics. Politically they are trying to drive a wedge.

When you introduce private accounts, you are saying some of the money that otherwise would go into Social Security will no longer do so. So you weaken the Social Security pot. And those who do depend on their Social Security checks, as opposed to those for whom it is beer money, will get hurt.

I am not against private accounts. The Wall Street has a limitless appetite for money: that is how stock prices go up. But do that without messing up Social Security. So if people pay $10 of their $100 income to Social Security, they should continue to do so. But then they should turn around and save $5, and that money should go into private accounts. If you have such faith in Wall Street to take care of your retirement, I am sure you will scrimp and save the additional five dollars.

As for the politics part, there has to be a counter move. Maybe we should pass an amendment to Social Security such that everybody still chips in, but payments are stopped to those for whom it is beer money. That way you solve the insolvency problem.

On school vouchers, I am all for competition. And I do realize there are some smart students stuck in public schools that are sub par. But then those schools are sub par because they don't have enough money. So if you take away their money, they are going to end up even less good. So draining money from those schools is a very bad idea.

Instead there should be federally funded scholarships for those students. If you are in a public school, and you do well, you earn scholarships to attend private schools.

And we should at the same time increase funding for the sub par schools. You do that by making them less dependent on property taxes.

And I am all for test scores. But if you do not invest in increasing the quality of the education, and only invest in testing, what are you doing? Testing is the icing on the top. But W talks like it is the cake.

Stop the class warfare. Think in terms of the public good.

W is waging a classic class war. With school vouchers you try to pit a few less well off families against many less well off families. Normally they would stay united and Democratic. With private accounts, you pit the beer money people against those who really need it.

Like Britain, India and Pakistan. Britain said, you want independence? You can have it, but we are going to prove to you you will kill each other on your own. And so they organized a messy partition. The wounds have still not healed.

The powerless often are at the very brink of infighting. But it is not good policy to push them off the slope.

Superpower Talk, Infrastructure Talk

America is not going to be the sole superpower forever. That is a fact. In the long churn of history powers emerge and subside. About 800 years back China was the number one country on the planet, on the cutting edge of science. 500 years back Europeans were barbarians, busy in their little fights, sticks and stones. We have all heard of Genghis Khan. The 19th century Britain claimed the sun never set on its empire, those screwed up Brits. America dominated the 20th century. It is my analysis this 21st belongs to Asia. But I expect America to be the number one country for much of my working life. It is because it is a more polished democracy than India, and China is not even a democracy. The biggest reason is that America is the most diverse country on the planet. That is why Europe is no competition. Europe is decades behind America on diversity issues.

And America is not a white country. It might have been, and there still are residues. But the future offers to be colorful.

TIME.com Print Page: Top Stories -- The Coming of the Minority ...
TIME.com: Welcome to America's Most Diverse City -- Page 1
CBS News | Whites Now A Minority In California | March 30, 2001 09 ...
NPR : Whites Now the Minority in Texas

So when I say America will continue to be the leading country, I am not paying homage to the whites. I am paying homage to the idea of democracy. The best thing America can do to make sure it stays the number one country is to take race relations in this country to a whole new level. I guess it could also balance the budget. And it could work on the free wireless broadband idea. And the idea of free, ad-based books online. And Americans could lose weight.

But for me it is not superpower talk. It is not about the ego of nations and states. For me it is about the individual: individuals in America, and India, and China, and everywhere. For me it is not about the relative strength of nations, but the absolute living standard of people everywhere.

So if the per capita income in America is $40,000, I want it to go up. If the per capita income in China is $6000, I want it to go up. If the per capita income in India is $3000, I want it to go up.
If the income in the US goes from 40,000 to 60,000 in a decade, but in China it shoots from 6,000 to 15,000 in the same timespan, China is growing faster, and all the glory to it. Everyone should be happy: more Chinese are rising out of barebones poverty.

There are people on the left and the right in America who sound alarmist on China and India. Those are racist sentiments. Do not demonize the dirt poor. An average Indian is dirt poor.

For me it is about progressive thinking, and the political, social and economic infrastructure. There is work to be done in every country on that infrastructure. And economic growth is truly a win win game.

China does not grow at the expense of America. Some people are like, oh, but China now manufactures many cars. So? Imagine a world with three billion cars, all electric. How is that for an idea?

You can not be for wealth creation in all income brackets and denounce the natural churn of the marketplace. Education and health are public policy failures. Citizens and public elected officials need to take responsibility. Don't blame those on the corporations.

And for me race relations are not about history, but more science and mathematics. To me democracy is a postulate, it is called one person, one vote. And build your various models from that basic postulate. When I build it all the way, the world looks like this: Reorganized UN.