'Ownership society': why the US can't buy in

[Rose Siding]

Many Americans - perhaps most of them - aren't ready for President Bush's "ownership society." The idea sounds good. Employees could shift a portion of what they pay into Social Security and put it into individual accounts that might gain higher returns in, say, the stock market.
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The flaw in this logic is Americans' lack of financial sophistication. For example: Less than one-quarter of working-age people characterize themselves as "knowledgeable investors," according to surveys by John Hancock Financial Services. Even this minority shows "considerable confusion." For example: Many surveyed thought money-market funds included stocks and bonds.
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Moreover, many Americans would have trouble reading the documents involved in such decisions. Some 44 million adults at the lowest of five levels of literacy were unable to decipher simple texts and documents, according to a decade-old survey by the Department of Education. Even the larger number of people at the next level of literacy would find financial reports and documents difficult.

Because it goes to the heart of the liberal-conservative divide over the role of government, the ownership society sparks political controversy.

"Boneheaded, wacky, breathtakingly threatening," writes Greg Palast for AlterNet, a liberal website set up by the Independent Media Institute. It's "lopping off a chunk of Social Security insurance revenue for gambling in the stock market."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0927/p17s01-cogn.html

[Union Thug]

1. I've got an idea for an ownership society...

...how about shared ownership in utilities, in wilderness, in transportation, in providing higher education for all who want it? How about allowing people to really take ownership of themselves by providing a society that truly supports the development of the individual and allows them access to healthcare and grants them the ability to work to their potential without going into devastating debt? How about a society that owns its choices rather than having them marketed to them 24/7? That's the ownership society I want.