This photo reminded me of the presidential campaign several years ago when there was all the talk about putting Social Security in a "Lock Box." This picture especially reminded me of the further discussions that suggested that our government should have "privatized Social Security" so that supposedly YOU and I would be more in control of our retirement money! ("Don't you trust yourself more with your money than you trust the Gov.?" was the misleading sales pitch, meant to put any retirement savings into the hands of the big financial institutions on Wall Street... ) Can you imagine the even bigger financial mess we'd be in today if we had listened to those calls for "privatization"?

And who today is reminding us of that averted disaster?

Many of those who told us we should privatize Social Security are the very same voices that are now telling us about "death panels" and about how much better off we are if we just leave things up to the insurance companies, the medical industry, and the pharmaceutical companies. The very same economic motives for "privatizing Social Security" are behind keeping the status quo in our health care system. Don't forget the disaster that would have been wreaked on us by the economic management of "private industry," a management that has already decimated so many hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people's "private" retirement savings. They don't have our health and well being and financial security in mind.... They want the money folks! And if they had their way several years ago with Social Security, the image above would have been all that is left.