More on the Social Security Muddle

I posted the following on The Daily Howler blog today as a response to the continuing misunderstanding of Social Security's prospects.

"The relentless disinformation campaign continues in tandem with a state of impenetrable ignorance. The Social Security Trustees annually publish three - not one - three forecasts of the possible prospects for the trust fund and for the program's capacity pay full benefits. In keeping with the legendary laziness of journalists, only one of these, the Intermediate, is discussed in the media. The High Cost and Low Cost projections are ignored because the former would terrify its readers and because the latter would persuade many that Social Security is in good shape for all the years to come. That would mean no frightening tale with which to lure, delude, and inflame a gullible public. It is the projections of the Intermediate that provide the myth of trust fund exhaustion in 2036, reduction of benefits by a quarter until 2085, and the unspoken implication of the abyss afterward."