You benefit most. That means you stand to lose the most.

Social Security is the only source of income for about 38 percent of black retirees and 40 percent of Hispanic retirees, according to government data. In contrast, only 18 percent of white retirees receive income exclusively from Social Security.

Look at those numbers and think of all the old people you know. For every 10 elderly black people you know, 4 of them have nothing to live on except Social Security. Ditto, elderly Hispanics. If they lose their pensions in the stock market, what will all those poor old people do? Clinton did away with most of the welfare. There is virtually no safety net. What are we going to do, make Soylent Green out of them? They barely make ends meet now. What's left once Wall Street takes their big-assed commissions? Or if you invest with the next Kenny-boy Lay?

The system is intended to be more generous, relative to taxes paid, to low-income workers. Retirement benefits replace about 70 percent of working income for a person who earns $10,000 year. But benefits replace only 28.5 percent of earnings for a person who earns $70,000.

It's your money. Don't let them get their greedy hands on it.

But critics have argued for years that Social Security is less "progressive" than it looks because poorer people tend to die younger than do affluent people.

LIE. LIE. LIE.

Now pay attention:

The average life expectancy for black males is about 69 years, compared with 75 years for the average white male, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In theory, that greatly reduces the average lifetime retirement benefits for black men.

But the gap is smaller for people who actually reach retirement because black life expectancies are heavily affected by infant mortality and violence. A black man who turns 65 has a life expectancy of 79.6 years, only two years less than that of a 65-year-old white man.

They skew the numbers by counting your children who die from lack of decent health care. If you had a job that paid a living wage and health insurance, your life expectancy would be higher. They're underpaying you, shortening your life, then turning around and trying to make you think you'll have more if you let them have access to money you've already earned.

African-Americans also receive a disproportionate share of disability benefits and survivor benefits, which are paid to spouses and children of workers who die early.

So if you do such ridiculously hard labor or have such poor health care that you die in your 40's, at least your kids will have some money to sustain them. If you die early, your widow will still be able to eat. The proposed changes may reduce or eliminate this. Are you going to trust these lying greedy bastards with your children's welfare after you're gone? Because they couldn't care less. Your kids are just a body to fill a uniform - a uniform they'll die in because Texas' enconomy relies heavily on war profiteering.

African-Americans account for about 12 percent of the population, for example, but African-American children account for 23 percent of children who receive Social Security survivor benefits.

What are those kids going to do if their mommy or daddy makes a bad investment?

Mr. Bush has indicated that he would not make any changes to the Social Security disability program, whose benefits are financed by a separate part of payroll taxes.

Disability benefits are calculated in part based on estimates of what a worker's future retirement benefits would have been if he had kept working.

Well, that's something, but watch it get harder and harder to get your disability benefits. If you get sick right now it can take up to 5 years, and you have nothing in the mean time. If your family can't support you, you're homeless.

Protecting the survivor benefits under Social Security could be even more difficult because those are paid from the same pool of taxes used to pay retirement benefits. A Treasury Department study in 1996, which analyzed Social Security records from 1951 through 1988, concluded that people at all income levels received more in benefits than they had paid out in taxes, even after adjusting for inflation.

KIDS AT RISK

The Treasury economists concluded that a higher mortality rate "does not reverse the conclusion that Social Security net returns are strongly progressive."

In other words, their fuzzy math is wrong. It does benefit you, and you stand to lose a lot if they change it.

The accountability office, the investigative arm of the Congress, reached a similar conclusion in 2003. It calculated that whites ultimately received slightly more benefits than did blacks and Hispanics at every income level. But those differences were small compared with the higher benefits offered to people at lower income levels.

"If you took a snapshot today and asked who benefits the most from Social Security, it would be African-Americans," said Robert Johnson, the chairman of Black Entertainment Television and a supporter of Mr. Bush's approach.

OK, lIsten to the bullshit meter going off the chart. A Rich Media Owner acknowleges that blacks benefit most, then turns around and supports Bush. Think "Media Consolidtion" and "Tax Cuts". That guy's kids will never want for anything. If he dies right now, they have trust funds. They have health care. They have a roof over their heads. He's going to make money off this deal - YOUR money.

Supporters of private retirement accounts say this could be a big political opportunity for Republicans.

"The Democratic Party is so dependent on huge margins in the black community that if even 25 or 30 percent of blacks back personal savings accounts it would be a big gain for Republicans," said Michael Tanner, the director of the Project on Social Security Choice at the Cato Institute.

Does that sentence say this is a big opportunity for blacks? NO.
It says it's an opportunity for Republicans. They aren't working for you. They're working to keep themselves fat and happy off the money you worked yourself to death to earn. These are not your friends.

Many large African-American organizations, like the National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People, remain adamantly opposed to Mr. Bush's plan.

They oppose it because they know it will destroy their communities.

Hispanic groups are more divided. The League of United Latin American Citizens has firmly opposed Mr. Bush's call for private accounts.

But the National Council of La Raza has taken a more nuanced position. Last month, the organization said it welcomed the debate over Social Security but "does not believe that the system needs to be dramatically restructured."

This makes me sad. Hispanics are letting their hatred of gays and submissiveness to the Church get in the way of their common sense. Bush is not a friend to Hispanics, either. I don't care if he has an Hispanic nephew. I don't care what he says about immigration - he wants your vote. He needs your vote.

Look, I'm not shilling for the Democrats. Both parties are owned by the same corporate interests. If we had any sense, every one of us would be in the Green Party. But they own the playing field so if we have to choose one of two, it better be the Democrats. You don't want to live in the police state that the Republicans will create if they aren't checked. The Dems might be a little lame, but at least they aren't flat out evil.