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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (93528)	1/4/2005 3:04:37 AM
From: Sig	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793748

.<<Bush Plan Likely to Cut Initial Benefits The Bush administration has signaled that it will propose changing the formula that sets initial Social Security benefit levels, cutting promised benefits by nearly a third in the coming decades, according to several Republicans close to the White House. >>> They are lacking data to make proper assumptions, so this is an attempt to rein in some government promises that appear to become exorbitant in the future. If we make assumptions about the future based on the past then the growth for Walmart and Dell would be as follows WMT at 10% growth: 2004 sales 280 bil, 2014 sales 728 bil, 2019 sales 1176 bil, 2024 sales 1884 bil (or $1.8 trillion) Dell at 20% growth: 2004 sales 45 bil, 2014 sales 279 bil, 2019 sales 603 bil. 2024 sales 1710 bil (or $1.7 trillion) And Dell would have an after tax profit of $76 bil in 2024 And WMT in 2024 would have 24,500 stores instead of just 3544 And Dell would have 1.7 mm employees in 2024. You can see there is something wrong here, despite what the math or economics indicates. The government has the same type of problem but with smaller percentages. IMO the Government will have to mess with SS sooner or later, despite the fact that citizens think they own the program, and it is their money. So this is a good opportunity to see what changes the public can accept , if any, when changes are truly required. Try it for 4 years, if it doesn't look good the next Congress has time to change it in 2009. Not worried Sig ,

To: KLP who wrote (93528)	1/4/2005 10:01:11 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793748

Currently, initial benefits are set by a complex formula that calculates workers' average annual earnings in their 35 highest-paid years and adjusts those earnings up from those years to reflect standards of living near that worker's retirement age. That adjustment is based on wage growth over that time span. Under the commission plan, the adjustment would be based instead on the rise of consumer prices. Finally. Finally an explanation of the wage/price thing. Kudos to the Post.