2/16/2005 06:45:00 AM|||Toni|||Star Parker: Transforming moral problems into politics

I found this to be an interesting argument. If the US were to do a 'do over' would Social Security ever be set up the way it is today. The answer is an emphatic no. The reason there is such a storm over SS reform is financial which was one of the same reasons against the elimination of slavery. Not only was it a State's Rights issue but the financial impact to the South was huge.

Excerpt:
Bottom line: The transition costs of unwinding ourselves out of the bind of the institution of slavery seemed far too high.

And:
Franklin, the visionary, knew slavery could not go on and knew that the longer the nation waited, the challenge of ending it would grow only more complicated and painful.

And:
We are saddled today with a government program, designed many years ago, that diminishes the wealth, benefits of ownership and freedom of every working American.

There have been numerous attempts over the past decades to fix Social Security. These attempts have only prolonged the agony and made the exit more painful and complicated.

When we look back 200 years, we wonder how great men could have turned away their eyes. I wonder today whether the outcome of the great Social Security debate will reflect the ideals of a free nation or calculations of entrenched political interests. |||110847990908378664|||Common ground between the politics of slavery and the politics of Social Security?