Kevin's Weblog

The local paper reported a couple days ago that “Social Security [is] a Gordian Knot”. I’m wondering if they actually put any thought into that metaphor, or if they just wanted to say “a big mess” and thought it sounded cool. (I didn’t actually have opportunity to read the article.)

The paper does have a conservative slant, so it’s possible that they really did mean it, as the popular opinion in that world does seem to be “in order to save Social Security, we have to destroy it.” Of course, the metaphor is completely false, as there are obvious and simple ways to unravel the problem (which isn’t actually anywhere near as bad as some would have us believe). Either of a small increase in the cap on Social Security deductions or a small increase in the age where benefits begin being paid out would be sufficient to get us over this hump. (Or a reduction in benefits, but that’s even more dead-in-the-water than either of those.) But, I suppose that that doesn’t make for a good headline.