1997_01 The Daily Collegian January 1997

              THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Wednesday, January 29,1997
Telephone: (209) 278-5732
Social Security
needs reform
By Joel Eanes
" The Daily Collegian
Social Security was the corner¬
stone of the New Deal. Like the
other relics of the New Deal, it's in
deep trouble.
The key problem in Social Se¬
curity is its operation as a financial
perpetual motion machine. A myth
exists that when someone's pay¬
ment is received, it's put in an en¬
velope in the Treasury with some¬
thing like "JOHN DOE—JANU¬
ARY 1997* stamped on it. Upon
retirement, it's mailed back. This
isn't so. When money is received
into the system, the bureaucrats
spend it.
The perpetual motion part is this:
The first generation of payments
into the system, back in the 1930s,
was spent. The first generation of
payments out were financed with
the second generation of payments
in. One generation supports the
next. This works, provided that each
generation is at least as prosperous
as the generation that preceded it.
In the real world, there's no guar¬
antee that this will happen. Since
benefits are expanded with each
generation, its successor has to be
even more prosperous, making this
situation still worse. If just one gen¬
eration doesn't meet this require¬
ment, the whole system collapses
like a house of cards.
The other myth is "I only get
back what I pay in." In other words,
each person supports his retirement
through Social Security, and the
system is a sealed, self-supporting
portion of the budget. On the con¬
trary, a payment into the system
loses value over the years due to
inflation. Cost-of-living adjust¬
ments make up for this. These ad¬
justments come from taxes. The
system isn't self-supporting, and a
typical recipient gets back much
more than what he pays in. Some¬
one has to make up this difference.
This fact may sound obvious—if a
person comes out even, why pay
into the system in the first place?—
but many miss it.
The next problem is that the
world that the system was designed
for simply no longer exists. In the
'30s. many people weren't in the
work force—most women, the
young, the infirm, the unemployed
of the Depression. Of those who
were, many wouldn't live to see
retirement. Those who did would
have a few years, and then die. To¬
day, almost everyone is in the la¬
bor force at some point, and thus
included in the system. Many live
to see retirement, and even live for
decades afterward, during which
they receive payments. None of this
was anticipated in the '30s.
But there is a larger issue. The
whole idea of the system is that the
average person won't save for his
retirement, so the bureaucrats need
to do it for him. Excuse me? I'm
not bright enough to intelligently
use the money that's mine in the
first place, but the people who pay
eight nurtdred buclts for a screw¬
driver are?
What to do? Avoid a one-size-
fits-all fix. Phase out the program
by dividing the population along
older, middle-aged and younger
groups. The older group will have
Social Security. Members of the
younger group won't, but can in¬
vest in their own retirements. The
middle group can choose between
the two options. This proposal, ad¬
vanced by two successive biparti¬
san government commissions, is
similar to a successful American-
advanced plan used by Chile since
1981.
The alternative isn't Social
Swtfrity's preservation, it's the en¬
tire system going broke, possibly
bankrupting the entire United States
government with it.
SIGNE       ?
PWLADELPHA DA1Y.NSWS
Floods aren 't all that bad
By Tom Sepulveda
The Daily Collegian"
In the wake of the massive state¬
wide flooding over the past month,
there are a few thoughts I'd like to
share with everyone.
"First..my condolences to every¬
one who lost a loved one in the trag¬
edy.
Second, (or those who choose
only to see the negative impact
these floods have. I offer a few sil¬
ver linings. While the short term
effect of flooding is catastrophic,
not just to people but to wildlife and
domestic animals, the long term ef¬
fect is beneficial. Many animals
died.but in terms of population dy¬
namics, that prevents overcrowd¬
ing, making room for a new, (hope¬
fully) healthier generation.
But the primary benefit of flood¬
ing is the new sediment deposited
throughout the flood plains. The
mouth of the river, be it in the San
Joaquin Delta or the Pacific Ocean,
will also gain from nutrignt rich
mud lining its banks. And the next
generation of animals will have
more food because more plants
grow in new soil. And farmers have
better top soil to work with for the
coming planting season.
Let's face it. California and the
Central Valley in particular is de¬
pendent on rivers. And without a
regular flood, these rivers become
stagnant. Th« course doesn't
change, new soil isn't created, and
soon you have a river that slowly
silts itself to death. A flood takes
the sediment built up in the chan¬
nel and pushes it to a flood plain or
a lake or river mouth.
Of course, the network of dams
we' ve built over the course of most
of our rivers tends to trap much of
that sediment. Silt builds up behind
a dam. usually built somewhere
nature didn't intend a lake to be. and
over the course of time, without
regular dredging, the silt pushes (he
water over the wall of the dam.
Would the floods be worse with¬
out a dam? Yes. Would rivers be
healthier?
Definitely.
Let's face it. though. We cant
go around destroying dams and
watching the resulting flood lav
waste to everything in its path But
there is something we can do.
In Arizona last spring. Grand
Canyon National Park biologists
teamed up with the Fish and Wild¬
life Service and Army Corps of
Engineers to simulate flooding
Yes. simulate flooding.
By increasing the release from
Glen Canyon Dam. the Colorado
got something it hadn't seen in 70
years. A flood. The lack of which
had caused beaches to erode and al¬
lowed non-native species to push
out indigenous and endangered
wildlife.
The flood was a great success,
and even the fishery at Lee's Ferry
wasn't affected. Beaches were re
stored, and there are plans to do the
same thing again next year.
California could benefit from a
similar program in most of its riv¬
ers.
Here's to floods, may they hap¬
pen every year.
Daily Collegian
California State University, Fresno
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Luis Hernandez
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California State University. Fresno.
Opinions expressed m the Collegian
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