Read this piece in Forbes if you want to either laugh or become enraged. It is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read about Social Security and I’ve read a lot of dumb things about Social Security. The author thinks we can painlessly cut $10 trillion from Social Security but almost all of what he recommends is already in use! He thinks we can totally eliminate overpayments at SSA. He doesn’t begin to understand the equation. You can go from 99% accuracy to 99.9% accuracy but you’ll spend more than you save getting there. He thinks Social Security engages in no data sharing but it actually engages in extensive data sharing.
This piece is an example of what many people, especially on the right, think about government agencies, that they’re run by morons and that their performance could be dramatically improved in simple ways. While the people running Social Security may make a few mistakes, they’re not idiots. There are no simple low cost solutions. The idea that there’s $10 trillion out there to be saved is nuts.
8 comments:
The job is getting more stressful by the day and telework will probably be eliminated by the end of next month. This journalist thinks he knows all the answers from the sidelines but that’s not how the real world works. Luckily, he will be replaced by AI and the error rate will be nonexistent.
what a horrible article. just insane Forbes would publish this. I get the feeling often that literally 5% at most of our population understands any public policy issue and the rest have a myth-based fantasy understanding. Makes me feel isolated frankly b/c we are among the most ignorant folks in the world about our own society. This piece illustrates that . full of lies. and misdirection. Not only sentence is neutral or accurate. Yuck.
I agree with both comments above.
Articles like this and the general amount of hate aimed at federal workers right now is so disgusting. Do they think checks come out , planes fly, roads get built, food gets inspected all by magic? If we truly stopped working or slacking the way they think we do government services would stop. I sometimes wish they would get a taste of that but I honestly believe in what I’m doing. It’s so sad.
It’s not an article. It’s a native ad. That’s all most “articles” are these days. Think this way about that, feel that way about this. Doesn't have to be based on any sound-reality-based information. Didn’t you hear? Facts don’t matter any more.
The author must not be familiar with the old adage that it's better to remain silent and leave people in doubt of your ignorance, than to speak on a topic you know little of and remove that doubt.
2:04: 100percent. hilarious quip.
His methodology for estimating $10 trillion is savings is laughably naïve. Apparently Estonia ( 1.3 million total population) has saved an estimated 2% annual GDP by using some glorified digital SSN, and that will somehow translate to exactly 2% GDP of savings in the US...no further explanation.
And he pulls the other 5 trillion in savings out of where exactly? Cutting out Medicaid completely and ending poverty with some unspecified programs? And how does average discharge times at hospitals correlate to obvious fraud and abuse.
Articles like this really make you question the competence of supposed brilliance of our business elite.
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