The Problem With Trump’s Baby Accounts

Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble, from Bamm-Bamm’s debut in The Flintstones season-four episode “Little Bamm-Bamm.” Screen capture from episode four.

I usually find Claire Cain Miller’s pieces in the New York Times very useful, but her piece on Trump accounts badly misled readers in three ways. While the gist of the piece — that the Trump accounts will increase inequality since they are yet another way for the rich to avoid taxes — is correct, there is no excuse for misleading readers.

The key problem is the comment:

“A $1,000 investment at birth could be worth $6,000 at age 18, the Trump administration has estimated.”

“A $1,000 investment at birth could be worth $6,000 at age 18, the Trump administration has estimated.”

While this assertion is attributed to the Trump administration, it is essentially accepted as fact. In reality, the idea that the account would increase sixfold over 18 years is close to absurd.

The first point here is a simple crime that reporters often commit, it reports the numbers in nominal dollars. I know the New York Times’ readers are very well educated, but I guarantee that next to none of them have any idea how much........

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