Last night I attended an event far more to my taste. Steve Moore, who became every conservative’s hero after the Club for Growth’s late tooth-and-nail primary battle in Pennsylvania, was visiting Cornell on the invitation of the College Republicans and Cornell Review to give a talk entitled “How the Ownership Society Will Help the US Economy”.

Though he spoke on many issues, the focus was Social Security reform and effects that privatized the system would have on American society and economy. There is not much doubt, I think, about whether reform is needed; but the practical aspects are less clear, and he answered many of my questions about how removing such a major part of our current ’social’-ism system could actually take place.

Though it always requires a careful hand to remove something that so many of our poorest people have come to depend on, he comprehensively addressed many of the key issues that would be involved. We already know its problems, and how it short-changes many of those who need it’s help most. But how can it be reformed, when there are so many people who have grown old with the system already?

Currently 12% of your paycheck goes to the government, and under the new system you would still pay some of that– 6% to the SS bank to help pay for Grandma, and 6% to a personal account. What about the poorer people who aren’t used to handling investments? They can get some hand-holding, but it’s never too late to learn. Chili switched successfully to private retirement accounts in 1980, and it’s citizens are not all university grads. Now every factory worker is the proud owner of a little investment book, wherein their personal retirement savings are noted. If Chilean laborers can figure this out, American workers can too.

Sure there are some people who really don’t know how to invest, but the regulations would be such as to ensure that they couldn’t do anything unsafe. And for the people in this country who are just genetically socialist, and want the government handling their money for them… well, they can stay with the old system. There’s no kicking anyone out; this is about giving people choices.

But it’s a question of control — who will control these billions of dollars? Will it be a couple hundred people in Congress, or the workers of America?

I liked the point he brought up in conclusion. In the old days, the liberals had the catch-phrase “Power to the People”. Now we’re taking that over, as we fight to give more rights to the working people to do what they want with their money, with lower taxes, school choice, and personal retirement accounts.

The event was held in one of the larger lecture rooms, and though the room was not half-full, the attendees were all eager listeners. An intense question-and-answer time at the end lengthened the forty-five minute session to a full hour and a half, and I think we all left with a much better grasp of the issues surrounding economic reform. Perhaps even ready to go out and debate someone, in hopes that the rest of our liberal campus could understand it too.