What is the Deal with the AARP?
By Jan A. Larson The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has taken a position against the President’s proposal to privatize a portion of the Social Security system. Why? According to information on the AARP website, because it is too risky. The AARP believes that a government-funded (meaning taxpayer funded), guaranteed (meaning more taxes can always be extracted from the taxpayers) system is preferable to letting Americans choose to invest their hard-earned money and control their own destiny. The logic behind the AARP position is flawed on so many fronts, I hardly know where to start. The AARP claims that there really are “trust funds” that are “invested” and “growing.” However, they also admit, “current payroll taxes are used to pay benefits to beneficiaries.” With doubletalk like that, maybe we should put the AARP in charge of the Social Security system and they could simply talk our way out of the problem. The simplest analogy for the way Social Security “investment” wo
