Art Refice – 4/24/05

This page was last updated on May 1, 2005.

Don’t gamble with our money; Art Refice; Beaver County Times; April 24, 2005.

Unless Mr. Refice is a hypocrite, we must assume he has no investments of any kind because there no guaranteed investments. He must not have an IRA or 401(k). Mr. Refice especially must not have worked for any company or labor union that provides retirement benefits because all of those programs include stock holdings in their portfolios.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“I always thought General Motors and Mr. Goodwrench were the best sales team and would never be beat.

“But along come the Republican Party and President George Bush selling the voters about how good the economy is and that millions of jobs that they lost were regained. Mr. Goodwrench was left in the dust by this team. They did the sale of the century.”

[RWC] See my critique of Mr. Refice’s September 27, 2004, letter regarding this old claim of his.

“You may fool the voters, but Wall Street isn’t buying it. The only ones who will benefit from this team are their buddies in the oil and gas industries who are raking in billions while the poor suffer more.”

[RWC] Geez, everything President Bush does only benefits his “buddies in the oil and gas industries.” Come on, folks, either prove this BS or dream up a new bogeyman. Perhaps in a future letter Mr. Refice will describe how the poor are suffering more.

“I hope there are enough smart ones left in the White House who will pull the plug on this theory about putting Social Security in the stock market. Just imagine what would have happened to your money if it were in the market last week. You would be on the corner with a tin cup today.”

[RWC] I hope Mr. Refice is merely uninformed. No one anywhere is proposing to put Socialist Security in the stock market. President Bush proposes allowing individual workers to choose to have some of their Socialist Security taxes invested in a variety of securities. You won’t have to have any of your taxes invested if you don’t want to.

“A tin cup?” Mr. Refice, exaggerate much? Given the date of Mr. Refice’s letter, I assume he’s referring to the week of April 11-15. Based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the market dropped only 3.6%. The DJIA increased in the week before and the week after the week of April 11-15. You can choose other date ranges and show significant increases. That’s the stock market works; it constantly goes up and down in the short term. In the long term, though, the stock market consistently shows a solid return on your investment.

I guess Mr. Refice doesn’t understand investment strategy. Over the long term, the stock market consistently outperforms the “return” from Socialist Security. Even so, the market can be volatile over the short term, which is why you adjust your investment portfolio as you approach retirement. When you’re young, you can tolerate volatility because you are more interested in growth. As you approach retirement, you gradually shift your investments to securities that focus on cash flow and have lower volatility.

“I am glad that I am old enough that my money can’t be gambled with. People should have a vote on this matter; it’s their money.”

[RWC] Again, I hope Mr. Refice is merely uninformed. Each individual worker would “vote” on this matter because they would choose what was to be done with their Socialist Security taxes. Once again, you won’t have to have any of your taxes invested if you don’t want to.

“Bush has done enough damage with our funds. Our federal deficit is in orbit and he must be stopped from playing Texas Hold ‘Em with our Social Security.”

[RWC] I hope Mr. Refice researches this topic before he writes another letter.