What exactly does privatized social security mean?

[RWLake]

Privatized social security means the individual wage earner has the option to invest a percent of his social security benefit in predetermined investments. The down side is financial markets go up and down ( as we have seen from the current situation). The positive side is over time investments via the stock market grow at a much better rate then where social security traditional invest. All financial advisers will tell you in order for an investment portfolio to grow to the amount that is needed for retirement it most grow more than inflation. Traditional, social security investments are placed in very safe accounts that make less than 3% a year. This barely beats inflation and as a result will never grow to secure a successful retirement. This is why anyone living strictly on SS has a very low level of existence. In addition, when investing for retirement a person isn't really concerned what the acct is worth tomorrow, but instead is concerned about how much will be in the account when he or she retires. That could be 20-40 yrs later. History shows accounts invested for that period of time do very well. Hope this helps.