Anyone who follows American politics will have heard the Right's endless demands for "entitlement reform." They argue that Social Security is on the verge of insolvency and therefore payouts need to be trimmed. After all, how can you maintain insane tax cuts for the rich if you have to pay the poor?
The Brookings Institute has a telling contradiction of the Right's favourite fairy tale. The article points out that while Social Security indeed went "cash negative" last year, the private pension industry has been cash negative for 25-years. It also explains that while contributions to Social Security were less that payouts last year, the system also receives revenues from its investments, revenues that left the Social Security agency with a comfortable surplus.
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