Should we privatize Social Security?

[GoneGreen]

By looking at the market today, how good of an idea would that have been.

[Marcello]

How can you NOT advocate having some or all of it privatized?

Of course, its the popular thing to be against the idea because the market is so down this past year, but when you consider:

1 - there has never been a 30 year period in the history of social security where the S&P has not far surpassed its returns. Yes, that is accurate…even if you invested the same money that went into your SS for the last 30 years instead into the S&P (even with the market as far down as it has been) you would have MUCH more money than you get with Social Security.

2 - as bad as the markets have been, Social Security has much bigger problems at the moment. Remember baby boomers that are starting to retire? Remember the fact that without drastically changing how the Government allocates its funds, there will be no funds for SS?


Don't get sucked into the idea that a paltry 2% return from Social Security is better for you just because the markets are currently down - that is only the claim of those unwilling to face facts and are so short sighted they only look at the present to make a determining factor about a investment plan that covers decades.


Furthermore, don't listen to any of those fools who are of the assumption that had this gone through recently that suddenly everyone would have lost their money. Had a bill passed, it would have permitted people to start contributing, not merely put their entire SS benefits in the market...so only new contributions would have been affected by the market. In other words, if you had paid into SS for 29 years and then switched to privatized accounts for the last year, and then retired after 30 years, only 1/30th of your retirement would have been affected, which would hardly have been a dent. This is what the meatheads that jump to conclusions cannot comprehend, that retirement is not a one year view, its a long term plan that requires looking at the entire length of time one contributes. This is also probably why so few in this country are wealthy since so few can even comprehend something this simple. Unreal.