tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post8027906354374563058..comments2024-03-27T08:39:28.807-06:00Comments on Wash Park Prophet: Harsanyi Out Of Touch On Social SecurityAndrew Oh-Willekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-66956211944616718782009-08-14T16:08:18.582-06:002009-08-14T16:08:18.582-06:00The lesson of Social Security is that categorical ...The lesson of Social Security is that categorical programs are much cheaper to administer, much less fraud prone, and much more popular than means-tested ones.<br /><br />Also, is it really regressive if the poor get a better deal from the program taken as a whole than they do if it didn't exist at all?<br /><br />And, "states rights" doesn't make much sense in this situation. States are not being prevented from doing anything and the administrative costs of a well functioning program are surely lower if it is federalized. This makes sense at a federal level because it keeps the program simple. If one were to pre-fund the Social Security Trust fund with private assets, decentralizing the responsibility to state treasurers might make sense, but the rest of the program works much better at the federal level alone. Programs like worker's compensation, unemployment insurance and Medicaid run at the state level with elaborate qualification rules are comparative failures.<br /><br />Aid to the elderly has never been exclusively or even significantly religious; historically and even today in places with weak safety nets, the responsibility was primarily with extended family. The need for Social Security has more to do with shrinking family size and geographic mobility of people's descendants andthe rise of a cash economy than it does with secularization.<br /><br />State administered of health care benefit programs (e.g. Medicaid) have a poor record of success compared to purely federal programs (e.g. Medicare). Some of this is the means test v. categorical issue, some is not. The Germans and Canadians have good experience with having states administer social welfare programs under a federal framework, the Americans and French do not, although even there programs differ. There isn't any profound reason that this is so; it is simply a question of history and bureaucratic evolution.<br /><br />Notably, there are no libertarian states. While states differ from each other a great deal on social issues and on the dimension of generalized governmental competence, on issues of governmental administration philosophy and big v. small government, there are no real material differences between the states in any systemic manner.Andrew Oh-Willekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-84227057414414809492009-08-14T13:36:08.652-06:002009-08-14T13:36:08.652-06:00If the goal is to keep people out of poverty the S...If the goal is to keep people out of poverty the Social Security benefits should be means-tested.<br /><br />There is no more Social Security Trust Fund. Social Security benefits will start drawing from the general tax base starting in 2017.<br /><br />It's time to throw off the charade that Social Security is a retirement account and make it fully a welfare system.<br /><br />Doing so would eliminate the regressive payroll tax.<br /><br />As a states-rights advocate, I think it should also be administered by the states, that will likely enter into reciprocity agreements on their own. The point is that a libertarian state could opt out.<br /><br />Another problem with Social Security is its forced secularization. Before the New Deal, charity was charitable and provided by religious organizations.<br /><br />When it comes to healthcare, it should also be administered by the states if at all. It should also be for basic healthcare, and not a way to funnel money to Big Pharma over patented drugs. There are a lot of other issues with healthcare as well, but these are the top issues when constrained to looking at issues similar to Social Security.Michael Malakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10007582156392845677noreply@blogger.com