or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
December 20, 2004
For The Good Of Mankind, The US Government Should Give Me Money
The Cato Institute, a think tank in Washington, is a prime proponent of Social Security privatization. Today their Social Security website features a study claiming privatization is "unlikely to produce a windfall for Wall Street."
Where did the study come from? Why, it would be the Security Industry Association. As their website explains, the SIA "brings together the shared interests of nearly 600 securities firms to accomplish common goals."
How odd that security firms have found privatization would not make them money... yet they relentlessly lobby for it anyway. I guess it's just their excess of goodwill toward their fellow man, something for which Wall Street is widely known. Wall Street always spends money on things that won't make a profit. I believe that's their raison d'etre.
Next up: the Defense Industry Association releases a study showing how massive increases in defense spending won't produce a windfall for the defense industry.
$PECIAL BONU$ MATH $ECTION
According to the SIA study, Social Security privatization would generate "only $39 billion in fees over the first 75 years, or just 1.2 percent of estimated revenue for the entire financial sector during that time span."
39 divided by .012 equals 3250.
So, over the next 75 years, financial sector revenues will be 3.250 trillion dollars.
Posted at December 20, 2004 05:37 AM | TrackBack"So, over the next 75 years, financial sector revenues will be 3.250 trillion dollars."
Wow! 3.2 trillion is nothing, hardly even one corporate jet per corporate VP, over that time.
And here I was going to start investing in financial stocks.
Jonathon, there are no such things as insane, evil government policies!
There are, however, conspiracy theorists who deliberately misunderstood the intentions of people whose financial health is guaranteed by defined, guaranteed benefit plans. I'd hate to lump you in with the blame America first crowd. Please make your opinion on this less shrill.
Posted by: Harry at December 20, 2004 12:45 PMOk, how about this: I invest the money for everybody, and the government only pay me, oh, 800 or 900 million dollars. Take that, compassionate Wall Street fuckers!
Posted by: Hugo at December 20, 2004 04:26 PMThe rest of that $3,250,000,000,000 will come from late fees on my credit card.
Posted by: Setty at December 21, 2004 06:36 PM
