Discussion on why-not-enact-the-ball-plan

[coberly]

Bruce

I agree with you entirely. The "Rosser Plan" has its own dangers, but
we can save discussing those until the real enemy is defeated.

And I agree that "nothing" is the best plan right now. Nevertheless,
inspired by a recent discussion in AngryBear, I worked out two "plans"
that are not nothing, but right next to it, that I would like to
share. If you don't think it would be giving aid and comfort to the
enemy.

The two plans are essentially:

Plan 1
write a trigger into the law so that any time Social Security
approaches short term actuarial insolvency the payroll tax is
automatically increased one tenth of a percent on each the employee
and the employer. I'll save the detailed arguments for a longer
post.

Plan 2
The other "not nothing" plan would be an immediate increase in the
payroll tax of one tenth of one percent combined. This would be an
increase of the tax amounting to 35 cents per week for the average
worker today. Nor would it climb to much more than 50 cents per week
any time before 2030. After 2030 there would be no need for a further
increase, using the accumulated Trust Fund at that time to finish
paying for the Boomer retirement while winding down toward the normal
trust fund ratio of 100. much later in the century Plan 1 above could
be invoked.

Both of these plans would provide "solvency" for the infinite future,
without "changing" Social Security in any way, at a cost no sane
person would even notice.

I don't propose these as Political Positions in place of Nothing. But
i thinkwe could safely discuss them here without scaring the horses.

[bruce....@gmail.com]

Great. Remember that you can put those plans up as a Page or Pages.

Before getting to policy I want to talk Group mechanics. Currently the
Group is set up so that anyone can view content or request to become
Members but cannot post to the group. On the other hand all Members
can post content and upload files and invite new Members and I would
urge anyone to do any or all of those things.

BUT. This will not be allowed to descend to a home for flame wars. Nor
is it designed to be a kindergarten, people invited to join should
have demonstrated some basic understanding of the issues.

Second if the Group takes off it can result in a blizzard of e-mail
hitting your in-box. To limit this you have three alternative options:
no e-mail (meaning checking the web), daily summary, or daily
aggregate of up to 25 posts. These options can be set via the 'Edit my
membership'

Third consider if you want your overall Google Profile to display or
not. Things like your JS-Kit profile, myopenid, and Google often show
more about your outside interests than you might care them to.

Fourth feel free to experiment and to suggest changes or new content.
My idea is to transform this into a one-stop shopping place for Social
Security resources by moving my Favorites to a Page here. I have
already unloaded some Plans and Reports. There is a 100 meg limit on
files but also the opportunity to link to other online storage space.
For example I have a huge allocation at mobile.me (formally mac.com)
and more at my internet providers that can be linked back. So this can
be as big or small as Members care to make it.