More on Social Security

There's an interview with the long-suffering economist Paul Krugman over at Rolling Stone. I say long-suffering because Krugman has been patiently explaining some of the economic issues for quite a long time, and it has to be hard to figure out new ways to explain them in his New York Times editorials. Anyway it's a good interview, and I particularly liked this exchange.

In selling the idea that there's a crisis, Bush has a lot of powerful words on his side: "choice," "freedom," "ownership society." What words do you have to counter his sales job?

Scam. Three-card monte. I've been thinking a lot about flying pigs. The privateers are claiming that you can have something for nothing. They're basically saying, "Let's assume that pigs can fly." And when you say, "You know, it's not good to assume that pigs can fly," they respond by saying, "What's wrong with you? Don't you understand the enormous advantage of flying pigs?"

Personally I've never understood the advantage to flying pigs. I mean wouldn't that make it harder to get bacon or ham or pork chops?