Molly Ivins’ Feb. 9 column invites us to consider Social Security, “without any math at all.”

She might be right; Social Security reform doesn’t seem like such a priority if we deliberately ignore the relevant facts.

If we instead choose not to ignore the facts, some simple math reveals the staggering true costs of Social Security both to workers and to society as a whole.

The fact is that over a 30-year working career, the 3 to 4 percent real rate of return on a cautious bond-based retirement strategy dwarfs the less than 1 percent real return on Social Security. For decades, Social Security has been robbing retirees of billions that they would have otherwise earned from investment.

The second, more insidious cost is the loss to society of the goods and services not produced when Washington hijacks billions of dollars. Instead of being productively invested, these funds are whisked away in return for government IOUs and squandered on foolish wars and politically correct indoctrination for schoolchildren. Instead of contributing to the kind of economic growth that benefits everyone, the funds are doled out to special interests for the benefit of the politically privileged.

Ivins would have us ignore these facts. Indeed, it is only through such ignorance that anyone could even consider continuing Social Security in anything close to its present form.

Jim Chappelow

Orono