There are some interesting points being made over at Steve Sailer’s blog. Steve himself, a Bushophobe conservative, makes

this rather unsettling one: “How much evidence is there that Bush’s actions

generally turn out more responsible than his rhetoric? Iraq? Immigration?

Medicare drug benefits? Tax cuts during war time? No Child Left Behind?”

Well, personally, I bought (and still buy) Iraq; but he’s got me on the

others. What if Bush Sosec reform is like NCLB? Or GWB’s immigration

“”reform.”” (Yes, that’s double scare quotes. I thought something

extra-strength was needed.)

I’ll confess I am a Sosec reform skeptic, on the grounds that:

(a) It will make my life even more complicated, at an age when I’d be

looking to simplify it. More of my life, of the national life, will be in

the hands of lawyers and accountants, for a net loss of self-reliance. As

someone says on Steve’s site, only one person in a thousand is smart enough

to do portfolio management even half competenetly. Sosec reform is a

nuclear strike against the left side of the Bell Curve, and the middle too.

(b) Govt will end up being involved MORE in my affairs, not less. The

current system is simple, straightforward, and needs about 8 bureaucrats to

run it. With the political necessities of privatized Sosec (i.e. you can’t

let people invest any fool way they please), there will be govt bureaucrats

crawling all over the mutual-fund business — yeah, yeah, but even more than

there already are. It will end with some crisis and a complete govt

takeover of the securities markets — “To protect your investments…”

I grew up under the old-style Beveridge- (trans: New Deal-) type socialism.

Free orange juice, free health care, free college education, a check once a

month when you hit retirement. Sure, sure, I know all the

counter-arguments — I’ve been hearing them (and making them!) all my life.

I’m starting to think, though, that we are being marched off towards a

newer, more oppressive, more liberty-denying kind of socialism; and the

banners we are marching under read: PRIVATIZATION! LIBERATION! PERSONAL

CHOICE!…..