Oligarchy

In my first real post to this blog, I noted an article in which Bernanke warned about the looming Social Security crisis, which amounted to $3.7 trillion over a 75 year horizon. Just a few short years ago, the conservatives were calling for benefit cuts, and Bush wanted to create private accounts and turn over some of the Social Security money to the Wall Street boys.

That seems like a remarkably bad idea now. Particularly galling is how fast Bernanke got $1 trillion (that's with a T) cash together when his buddies came calling, but how resistent he is to the idea of spending any money on the working folks. Even more galling is the possibility that the funding for this bailout of his pals could be coming from the $2 trillion Social Security trust fund, built up over the past 25 years by the working people for whom he appears to have no empathy. Maybe it is just coincidence that the size of the bailout is roughly the size of the SS trust fund, but a few alarm bells are going off in my head.

Meanwhile, people are throwing out the word socialism to describe the bailouts. Folks, that is wrong. Socialism would be the government spending $1 trillion to eliminate poverty, provide health care, and improve quality of life for the whole of the country. A few well connected government officials raiding the public treasury to save their friends' bacon is oligarchy, not socialism.