Pretend you're 25 and have a decent job but no retirement plan. Now pretend some nosy but helpful soul decides to give you one. We'll call him Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam is going to take away a portion of every pay check from now on and tell you, not guarantee you, that you'll get the money back with some interest when you are sufficiently close to the grave. Uncle Sam is conflicted so he decides to give you a couple choices.

You can put all of the wampum into the most colossal pyramid scheme ever devised by man or you can invest a portion of your abundance as you see fit in the open market.

That is privatization of Social Security in 125 words or less. The $2 trillion in transition costs for converting to partial private accounts is enough money to maintain the system in its current state. So when talking about Social Security, remember that the "crisis" at hand and privatization are two different things. So why should anyone want to create private accounts? Freedom and truth.

People should be trusted with their own money whenever possible. It promotes the culture of saving that funds our nations' businesses and ensures a brighter more secure retirement than the dwindling returns of Social Security.

Albert Einstein once called compounding interest as the 8th wonder of the world. It is hoped by conservative idealists that when people are put in close proximity to this beatific creation of man they will save their spare coinage rather than send it down the gullet of a Pottawatomi slot machine. What about those who have no extra scratch to save?

This is where the truth comes in. People have been hoodwinked into believing that Social Security redistributes wealth from the young to the old. It doesn't. It is the ultimate Robin Hood program moving billions from wealthy to poor. I am not proposing we pick our grandparents pockets, but we should acknowledge the program for what it is. It is a welfare program for the elderly disguised as a retirement program for everyone, which does a rink-dink job of providing retirement funds for anyone who isn't accustomed to living in poverty.

Providing a retirement plan for the masses is a worthy cause. Securing a period of rest for those citizens who have labored in poverty all of their lives before they descend into eternal stillness is a moral obligation. We can do a better job at both with a little bit more honesty.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Jan. 27 2005.