An acquaintance of mine from some years back, a virulent enough “Bush-hater” as to be almost a self-caricature, insisted that, when George W. Bush came out with his proposal for Social Security “private accounts,” this illustrated how ravenously “they” wanted to get “their” hands on the money going into that program. A form of Bush’s proposal now has been incorporated into Rep. Paul Ryan’s alternative budget, which at least has the virtue of being a conversation-starter. Michael Lind takes apart the Social Security provisions at Salon.com.

“That’s what Americans are demanding, Rep. Ryan. Millions of Americans are not content to have lost much or all of their 401K and other private retirement savings in the stock market in the last decade, with nothing but Social Security remaining to rescue them in their retirement years. No, Americans are angry because they weren’t allowed to lose all of their Social Security money, as well, in the stock market. Clearly they are angry because Wall Street brokers aren’t able to rake in commissions from middle-class and working-class retirees by flipping stocks bought with diverted Social Security funds. The bailouts to Wall Street were not enough. We need to give the rent-seeking bankers the vast funds of Social Security as well and let them charge us fees for ‘managing’ it with the legendary expertise we all know and admire.”