cato-at-liberty.org — With the stock market in turmoil, opponents of personal accounts for Social Security have once again raised the specter of Social Security "privatization." However the facts show personal accounts would offer better return, even with the current economic troubles.
Nov 1, 2008 View in Crawl 4
striker101Nov 1, 2008
Excellent writing in source. Back in the mid-70's I did a similar study for an economics term paper which showed generally the same trends (yes, I've been about this stuff for a very long time!). But I submit that the numbers are only the secondary point.As always, the real deal is freedom of personal choice. When government seizes your assets for anything, which anything is virtually always some socialist scheme, you have no choice. The free market is excluded and competition is eliminated, so any better deal is never available.So today all we have is our monies being held by a bankrupt government which cannot be trusted as trustee; we can only hope our SS checks keep coming.Plus we have all seen and heard HUGE amounts of SS liabilities which are not on the books because government doesn't do accrual accounting. Stupendous numbers, something around $55 Trillion, is that right? There is one thing good about this, the socialists will feel the same pain. <a class="user" href="http://morality101.net/blog/">http://morality101.net/blog/</a>
unlawflcombatntNov 1, 2008
No, the "fact" is that plans to privatize Social Security are nothing but a scam to force taxpayers to put even more money into Wall Streets' pockets. There are ALREADY 401Ks and IRAs -- which are "private" accounts. Privatization is nothing more than a Plutocratic Corporatist scam to steal even more money from working Americans. Privatization of Social Security is the worst Corporate Welfare scam ever concocted. And, by the way, how have all of those "privatized" 401Ks and IRAs done over the last year?
bucketsloggNov 1, 2008
No arguments it would work. Savings plans, ira's, roths... all work. The problem is, has always been, saving most of the people from themselves. I personally know of four different individuals who are hopelessly poor, who have received $$'s from various sources such as settlements, inheritance -who have all p*ssed it away in short order and have nothing but a couple of trinkets to show for it and are back on the public dole. One person is currently burning through his 2nd such settlement... you would think he would have learned?
ruffridrNov 2, 2008
"And, by the way, how have all of those "privatized" 401Ks and IRAs done over the last year?"At the current pace they would still be better than the amount of money to be projected available from Social Security by the time I retire, ie. zero.
ruffridrNov 3, 2008
"Professional ball player, for instance."Or politicians. Except those scumbags should give up more than an extra .5%.
necoatesNov 4, 2008
To enable you to have a personal account, the government would actually have to set the money aside. Hello people this aint happening! There is not 1 red cent set aside for SSI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!There are already rumblings of stopping the tax deferment on 401k, and taking another 5% from our paychecks for some BS account invested in notes gaining 3% a year.Heck of an Idea, I'm sure that money will be safe and sound and will never get spent like SSI did.