CBS Eve News: Chile's privatized Social Security "A Success"

by very enthusiastic and reassuring CBS hair-bot Trish Regan.

Republican-sounding Chilean white collar workers appear happy with their privatized accounts, in a stock market up ten percent. Bet you can count on that. You can count on it being covered by the corporate media.

This story was mostly rows of advanced LCD screens in expensive bank settings and clean offices, with a voice-over. No mountain villages or shanties in this successfully-privatized Chile.
Then a short segment with the fish market guys and sidewalk-stand vendors who don't contribute much to their personal accounts, and implicitly get what they deserve later.
Finally, back to the bank for the wrapup and the closing line on why Chileans presumably like their private accounts: "Ownership of their retirement account, means ownership of their future.'

You can tell that the corporate media, including PBS now, have been trying to lend as much credibility to the horrible notion of privatizing Social Security as they can without getting in front, but they can't get past the polls. They give it as gentle and comforting a push as possible while they studiously question almost nothing about the basically wrong concept of privatization. At least they usually report others exposing Bush's phony numbers, even if they keep it at just 'he said-she said'. That way they maintain the bare minimum for propaganda to be credible as news.

This was the first fairly blatantly pro-privatization propaganda I've seen on TV, outside of Bush's ridiculous prompter readings for the selected faithful. CBS really seems to be putting a big 'We're right-wingers too!' marker down for the Bush Social Security Dismantlement plan, and the fact that it comes the day after they ousted Dan Rather is no coincidence either. They were sending a clear message.

indicates that in fact it was an expensive mistake, requiring government bailout.

AAAARRRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

If anybody here is an expert on this subject, he or she should please write a cogent letter to CBS! They should know not everybody out here is an idiot.

I'm about ready to throw the tube in the wastebasket.

Sumner Redstone wanted Bush because he is good for Viacom. Gotta keep that dumb money flowing into Viacom stock somehow.

That's one Texan I am going to miss. "Chilean workers" should be a clue. They haven't retired yet.

n/t

because it DIDN'T.

I'm speechless.

:wtf:

Today even the government itself and the AFPs have admitted that at least half of the Chilean people will never accumulate enough to be able to get the minimum pension equivalent to $100 (US) monthly.

more...
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/659/1/46/

Fund touted success of privatized Social Security systems "all over the world" -- but evidence suggests otherwise

more...
http://mediamatters.org/items/200503040004

Twelve Reasons Why Privatizing Social Security is a Bad Idea

more...
http://www.socsec.org/publications.asp?pubid=503

There is no Crisis
Social Security is America's promise that those who work hard and play by the rules will retire with dignity. Even the most pessimistic of economists agree Social Security will remain solvent for decades. There is no crisis.

more...
http://www.thereisnocrisis.com

peace

Actually I can't remember the last time I heard news anywhere that I had not already learned here at DU.

to explain what happens when you are a low wage earner, and "your" portfolio does poorly.. You could reach the "retirement age" for your generation, and have very little to count on. 12.4% minus 4% "privatized" is likely to wind up about $400 a month... and what happens when you get disbaled early on.. your "private account" is for RETIREMENT and cannot be touched, so you have only a percentage of the diminished SS withheld..

There are so many nuances about this whole thing, and of course *² the "used-car-salesman, turned snake-oil salesman" wants you to vote YES, and "trust him"..

the one where you own a portion of the company's profit that you work for.

My husband worked for a company that had this, and at the ned of every year, the employees got a bonus check based on the profits of the company that year..not on the whims of a CEO..

This was in addition to the pension plan..(Too bad he ever left that company:()

They had it all figured out how to make sure you really never got it. I could tell you stories about Sears employees who got the royal finger. What I'm talking about is that employees should get the percentage of profit that stock holders ordinarily get. It seems to me the workers should benefit not a bunch of wall street yahoos. However, I can't tell you what I have in mind right now on a little post. As a matter of fact I can't tell you how it could be done right now so I will drop it for now.

What I am thinking about is if we are going to have a "ownership society", it shouldn't be owning the debt as the GOPirate envision, but the fruits of our labor instead.

Their 25-year experiment was a BOMB

http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/socialsec/ss_britain.html

Privatization Bombed in Britain
Now they’re looking for a way out
By Norma Cohen

February 2005

The president’s bold new plan to partly privatize Social Security, which has many on Wall Street salivating, is not new at all. In fact, it looks remarkably similar to Britain’s 25-year experiment with pension reform, which included substituting private investment accounts for a portion of government pension benefits. It is an experiment now regarded as a dismal failure.

In short, the British public—and government—lost money. They learned the hard way that the costs of administering private accounts can affect returns and reduce the size of a retirement pot by up to 30 percent.

Unusual for Britain, there is now an emerging consensus among labor and business, liberals and conservatives, that the government pension system—the United Kingdom’s counterpart to Social Security—needs serious reform. Recommendations for an overhaul are expected after the elections in May.

I do like the term "hair-bot" Tactical Progressive. It's worthy of adoption into our quasi official lexicoin of put downs. Excellent!

Here's one article on Chile, originally from NY Times
http://kerrylibrary.forumflash.com/index.php?showtopic=274&view=findpost&p=2371

Chile also appears to be the best example of a success (ignoring those who call it a failure). Looking at other countries shows even more clear cut failures.

their elderly have been dumped into poverty, so now they are looking into a system like our SS, prior to Bush, to fix it. :eyes:

links here

peace

Chile's Privatized Pensions Spell Disaster

After the 1973 fascist coup headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, trade unions were outlawed, the minimum wage abolished, state-owned enterprises were privatized, and social programs were abolished.

Because of poverty, unemployment, and the crapshoot of the stock market, together with the cut the AFPs take, Chileans are discovering that the promises made to them have not panned out. Retirees are also suffering because they haven’t received cost-of-living raises.

Today even the government itself and the AFPs have admitted that at least half of the Chilean people will never accumulate enough to be able to get the minimum pension equivalent to $100 (US) monthly.

The Chilean Center for Alternative National Development (CENDA) has said that two-thirds of the population will never qualify for a minimum pension." Manuel Riesco, CENDA’s director, added that "the Chilean private pension system will provide pensions on its own only to the upper-income minority."

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/659/1/46/

If there is one sector in Chilean society that has benefited from the privatized system, however, it is the AFPs.

And the American version:

{American}Investment Pros See Bonanza in Bush Social Security Plan


http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011105E.shtml

Bush's Lies on Social Security Could Cost Americans Trillions

But in fact, the scheme, if enacted, could collapse and "povertize" the Social Security system entirely, as in Bush's great model, Chile, where half of all retirees now get only welfare-level payments.

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/site_packages/ss_privatization/3149bush_lies_ss.html

A report this year from the World Bank, once an enthusiastic privatization proponent, expressed disappointment that in Chile, and in most other Latin American countries that followed in its footsteps, "more than half of all workers are excluded from even a semblance of a safety net during their old age."

Other cautionary points made in the World Bank report and other studies about the experience in Chile:

-Investment accounts of retirees are much smaller than originally predicted-so low that 41 percent of those eligible to collect pensions continue to work.

-Voracious commissions and other administrative costs have swallowed up large shares of those accounts. The brokerage firm CB Capitales calculated (see english language discussion by Stephen Kay here) that when commission charges are taken into consideration in Chile, the total average return on worker contributions between 1982 and 1999 was 5.1 percent-not 11 percent as calculated by the superintendent of pension funds. That report found that the average worker would have done better simply by placing their pension fund contributions in a passbook savings account.

-The transition costs of shifting to a privatized system in Chile averaged 6.1 percent of GDP in the 1980s, 4.8 percent in the 1990s, and are expected to average 4.3 percent from 1999 to 2037. Those costs are far higher than originally projected, in part because the government is obligated to provide subsidies for workers failing to accumulate enough money in their accounts to earn a minimum pension.

http://www.socsec.org/publications.asp?pubid=503

World Bank report:

http://wbln1018.worldbank.org/LAC/LAC.nsf/ECADocbyUnid/146EBBA3371508E785256CBB005C29B4?Opendocument

Social Security Privatization in Chile: A Case for Caution

Proponents of Social Security privatization often trumpet the Chilean “success story.” Right wing economists (and the finance industry-funded think tanks that sponsor them) spin fabulous yarns about the way the free market transformed Chile’s pension system. In doing so, however, they leave out crucial parts of the plot. Privatization advocates paper over very serious problems with Chile’s social security program.

-Transition costs have negatively impacted public spending.
-Pension fund management fees are exorbitant.
-Non-participation threatens the overall viability of the system.
-Individual accounts replace less of low-income workers and women’s wages.
-Private accounts leave workers susceptible to market downturns.

The Chilean experience with social security privatization gives much reason for pause. Major concerns include: the high cost of transition to a privatized system, exorbitant pension fund management fees, non-participation in the scheme, the effects on low/middle-income workers and women, and the vulnerability of workers to market risk.

These concerns are examined more closely in the following sections. (See link)

http://www.econop.org/SS-SocialInsecurityChile.htm

DON'T LET BUSH SCREW YOU (more) AMERICA, THE WAY PINOCHET SCREWED CHILE!

Pinochet on the country after assassinating Allende under Kissinger's orders during Nixon's administration.

that there is no doubt whatsoever in the FACT that the republican Party are fascists.

Look at what Pinochet did; compare to what the republican Party is doing/trying to do right now.

Identical.

Why do they think republican presidents installed all these rightwing dictators in the first place???

Yet the rightwingers absolutely refuse to face the fact that bush & Cartel are fascists. If you agree with every fascist principle, install fascists around the globe, and try to implement the exact same fascist principles in America, then you are a fascist.

Your story tonight on the Chilean Social Security system "success Story" is "divorced from reality". You portrayed privatization of SS in Chile as a success. President Bush used this line too. He has the support of Jose Pinera, the architect of the Chilean plan and now a member of the CATO Institute. He supports Bush's plan despite the abissmal record in his home country. It has been a failure. Please note the following quotes of information which clearly dispute your story:

"As the Bush administration pushes to privatize Social Security, many people are looking at countries where state-funded pensions have been privatized. One of them is Chile. President Bush lauded Chile’s privatized social security system as a "good example" for the U.S. when he visited Santiago last November to participate in the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Today even the government itself and the AFPs have admitted that at least half of the Chilean people will never accumulate enough to be able to get the minimum pension equivalent to $100 (US) monthly."

"Today even the government itself and the AFPs have admitted that at least half of the Chilean people will never accumulate enough to be able to get the minimum pension equivalent to $100 (US) monthly. The Chilean Center for Alternative National Development (CENDA) has said that "two-thirds of the population will never qualify for a minimum pension." Manuel Riesco, CENDA’s director, added that "the Chilean private pension system will provide pensions on its own only to the upper-income minority."

If there is one sector in Chilean society that has benefited from the privatized system, however, it is the AFPs. Many have former Pinochet cabinet officials on their boards of directors and they are among the most profitable companies in all of Chile.

Just like in the U.S., the people’s movement in Chile is fighting not just against the privatization schemes, but to expand programs for people’s needs. Its trade union federation, CUT, has set as one of its six priority "points of struggle" for 2005 "to change the current pension system" so that there is greater coverage and that it pays at least 70 percent of wages after retirement. CUT is also calling for an end to "the abuse of excessive fees by the management of the pension funds," as well as stopping the fund monies from becoming profits for the AFP owners.

The key architect of the Chilean plan under the fascist dictator Pinochet was José Piñera. Where is Piñera today? He’s a senior fellow at the Washington-based, libertarian Cato Institute, one of the main proponents of Social Security privatization in the U.S."
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/659/1/46




As Media Matters for America has previously noted, Chile's system of private accounts has been less effective for poor and middle-class workers than the public pension system that preceded it. The New York Times reported on January 27 that middle-class workers have discovered that private accounts "are failing to deliver as much in benefits as they would have received if they had stayed in the old system," and many poor Chileans don't receive "even a minimum pension" or "remain outside the system altogether." According to a Chilean government official specializing in pensions, "If people really had freedom of choice, 90 percent of them would opt to go back to the old system," the Times noted.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200503040004

Is it prophetic that Dan spoke of courage on his last night on air? Did he know you would 'overlook' the Pinera /Pinochet connections to the CATO Institute and its support for Bush's similar privitization plan? Was Dan likely to have aloud people to air an outright ficticious story on the state of privitization of social security in Chile? You did this the day after he left. You aired a story with a slant Karl Rove would have paid for.

Oh well, I guess we now know why Rather's retirement was pushed up by a year.

Goodbye scumbags! :hi:

I watched Dan Rather's last broadcast. It appears that will be the last time I watch CBS News.

The Lamestream Media is now a proganda tool for the Fascist Bush Junta.

I won't watch any news program anymore. It's easier to visit www.whitehouse.gov and get the news from them. When you bypass the middleman you don't have to watch all those stupid commercials.