All Intensive Purposes

Matthew Yglesias, donning the TPM mantle, recounts that he was debating Social Security today with the Wall Street Journal's John Fund. Ygleasias opened by observing that conservatives have never liked Social Security, to which Fund responded that he likes "the concept of Social Security" but wants to modernize it. Later, though, he referred to Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme." Says Yglesias, "Doesn't sound like the sort of thing a person who likes the idea of Social Security would say, does it? Of course not." Don't be so sure, though. I recall that the WSJ was pretty excited about Enron back in the day, and that turned out to be a pretty nifty Ponzi scheme, no?