Bush attack upon Social Security

Administration continues to 'lie' about fund, Feb. 2, 2005The Bush administration is out to destroy Social Security. In the process, the administration members are prepared to lie as extensively as they did about Iraq. One of those lies, as promoted by Dick Cheney, is that far fewer working people are now "supporting" each retiree than when the system was founded in 1933 and that this "burden" will increase in the future. What Cheney does not talk about is that it takes far fewer people to support our population than it did at the inception of Social Security in 1933.There has been an enormous increase in per capita productivity since 1933. A study by the International Monetary Fund on world productivity growth between 1960 and 1980 alone shows that the U.S. per capita growth in dollars increased by 55 percent. It is clear that technology is the main source of that growth. Unfortunately, the benefits of that growth have gone disproportionately to the wealthy.This growth, due to robotization in factories, the computer's impact on office productivity, the computerization of financial transactions, etc., is in large measure why fewer people are required to "support" one retiree. As Bush and his buddies of wealth have used that productivity to downsize, i.e. layoff, thousands of employees transferring their salaries and benefits to the pockets of the investment community, so they are now trying to use it to move the funds supporting Social Security to the market and the tender mercies of stock and bond speculators.ROBERT NEWHARDMurrieta