Quote of the Day

"Sometimes dictators have good ideas."

Sharron Angle, on Augusto Pinochet's privatization of Chile's retirement system was a good idea.

I have noted before that Republicans have gotten their horrible idea to privatize Social Security from Pinochet's failed retirement plan. José Piñera was the architect of Chile's pension plan. A 2005 Wall Street Journal article on Piñera notes countries that have adopted Chile style

But some of the countries that have adopted individual accounts have performed poorly. In Argentina and Bolivia, for instance, as some payroll taxes started flowing into private accounts instead of government coffers, the government had less money to pay existing retirees. Argentina and Bolivia had to make up the difference by borrowing, which contributed to economic crises.

In 2006, Chile's private account system was in serious trouble. The World Bank did a study and found Chile's private accounts paid quarter and a third of workers'what put into the system. Social Security recepiants can get all the money they put in back if they live long enough.

Conservatives like Angle support private accounts not because there is any proof it would work. There isn't. But because Angle and other Republicans hate Roosevelt's New Deal programs. FDR's New Deal kept millions out of poverty. To want to dismantle Social Security suggests someone who has no empathy for her fellow human beings. Angle's comment that a murdering butcher like Pinochet had good ideas is proof.