If the Bush Social Security plan had passed and then we had this economic crisis what would have happened?

[Hillbilly Hippie]

I ask with this in mind... Could such a calamity have been planned?

For those who do not know. The Bush Social Security Plan would have allowed the investing of our social security funds in the same institutions that collapsed.

[mutantalbino]

Not so bad. I've made money so far. If the Social Security Trust fund had invested in the SP500 in 1980, it would have gone up 1,124% including the downturn(s) and excluding dividends.

[TyranusXX]

Well you state things that are not correct. The SS plan would have only allowed people to invest in very limited and "safe" things

[pepperluu]

Bingo! If social security had been privatized, this economic crisis would have been an even bigger fiasco.

*EDIT*

I noticed all of the thumbs down from the financial geniuses out there. And maybe you'd have been fine, better off even. But what does that say to those who are not as savvy as you? Your usual answer, I suppose:

Let them sink or swim, right?

[Liberal AssKicker]

You always have the option of investing your IRA in low-interest (zero risk) accounts or mutuals (higher risk) accounts.

The SS account would have been the same.

Those who decided to invest in mutuals may have seen their accounts lose value the same way 401Ks and mutuals have.

[righteousjohnson]

...And it also would have allowed us to invest in the institutions that bought millions of dollars worth of assets from them for pennies on the dollar.

Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.

It all depends on how YOU would have invested YOUR money...get it?

[uglyhosc]

Bush wanted to allow individuals to place 5% of their SS money into money market accounts similar to a thrift savings account that every federal employee is able to do now.

[John Doe]

We'd be in way more debt...

[prescientone]

Hmmm...we also would have had the opportunity to invest in food, clothing, energy, agriculture, raw materials, treasury bills, CD's, money market funds, foreign stock markets, foreign countries. How much funds do you think are available in the Social Security bucket for your retirement right now? How much for your children? Do you really believe the Government can manage your money better than you?

[ohbrother]

Several have been bought out by private banking firms. This is what happens when you let the Government control it. This is what Clinton did after promising to protect it in his campaign. Every single time Social Security has been raided it was by a Democrat President and Congress and they have never replaced one penny.

Yesterday the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its preliminary re estimate of the White House budget. This follows the Joint Committee on Taxation's (JCT) re estimate of the Clinton White House's tax provisions last week. Together, CBO and JCT are Congress' official estimators -- nonpartisan entities that Clinton himself promised to use when he first took office back in 1993.

President Clinton has promised to protect Social Security, to reduce the debt to the maximum extent possible, to control spending, and reduce taxes. But, Congress' official estimators show that on all four counts, the President's budget fails. Instead, Clinton's budget raids the Social Security trust fund for $158 billion in five years, it artificially erases the surplus, it lowers the public debt less than doing nothing would, it increases spending, and it raises taxes by $89.7 billion over the 1999-2009 period.

Clinton Raids Social Security: According to CBO, Clinton spends $40 billion of the Social Security surplus in his budget's first year (2000) and $158 billion over the first five years (2000-2004).

This is the same Social Security surplus that he has promised to save in its entirety.

This is the biggest reason S.S. is in trouble. Clinton did not have a surplus. He left us in debt we are still paying for.

Social Security pays 1/2 to 1 percent interest. Pass book savings pay more. This is how the Democrats artifically make it look like they have a surplus. If your relative dies before the end of the month, even one hour before the first of the next month you will have to return the whole of their months Social Security check. That is what the Democrats did for the American people.