What would be so bad about privatizing Social Security?

[deepslave776]

Is it all about market volatility?

Wouldn't a long term investment strategy compensate for that, such as a 30-35 year plan? Also, under that approach, wouldn't the ROI still be far higher than the current public model which is a negative rate of return in some cases?
We still REQUIRE people to take money out of their paychecks and we limit the investments to nothing more risky than balanced funds. Just returning 5% over a 30 year period would smash the current rate of return.

[ashley]

Nothing. You are right. The average person investing in an S&P 500 mutual fund over their 40-year career would retire with 800% more money than they get from Social Security.

The reason why Democrats don't want it is because they lose power when the federal government shrinks. They are the party of government.

[whisperingtreatment665]

It should be phased out, but it will take decades to do it. Liberals like to use that to argue conservatives want to take away all social security tomorrow...not true.

There is no reason why it cannot be phased out. The government has mismanaged it for about 80 years as they do everything else.

The bottom line. Democrats do not want Americans to control more of their own money.

[Thedude27]

And talk about putting all your eggs in 1 basket. Do You really want to bet everything on the US government for your retirement?

>Were any of you not paying attention when Bush crashed the economy?

My 401K has more money in it now than it did before the crash. So yea, I was paying attention. And Bush didnt "crash the economy" the government that built the housing bubble did.

How long do you think a savings/pension program that operates at a loss will operate for vs one that generates a profit? Can you simply not draw an OBVIOUS conclusion like the rest of us can?

[Thedude27]

The government plans on your dieing before you can collect your accounts adjusted worth.
That's why they keep raising the age.

If it were privatized you could leave the balance to an heir and the government doesn't want that.

[jamestownx]

Were any of you not paying attention when Bush crashed the economy?

People who've been saving for 30 years and longer got their savings wiped out in a matter of days.

SS is the only reason some people still have homes and food to eat and health care.

The private market has yet to show the stability that the government has brought in the past 50 years, sure the private market is good when things are good, but not when things are bad. NO MORE BAILOUTS.

[ggraves1724]

I think you are correct. Privatization could also be insured by the Feds. Probably wouldn't be a bad deal, almost wished I was young enough to invest in privatized SS. Also wonder if it was privatized; would you still be able to invest in SS and the private SS? Lots of questions but real solutions

[Sugar]

I don't think it would. People just like what they are familiar with.

[Pfo]

It's not a terrible plan, but as you can see from typical lib answers, they don't understand the plan. They think that people invest ALL of their social security, when privatizing SS proposal legislation suggests a small portion in the range of 10-20%. They then go on some diatribe about Bush and the stock market crashing. If it was up to us to invest, we could choose to stay away from risky investments.

[Retro95]

Opponents argue that Social Security would be vulnerable to the economy and stock market. To a degree, that's true, but even with the latest crash many people have already gotten back much if not all of what they lost when the market tanked.

Bush tried to inject some privatization into SS, but it was quickly shot down. I think that allowing citizens to invest a percentage of their social security funds into a private account would be a far better solution than what we have now. We can take the burden off it's current function, which too many people look at as their sole and guaranteed Government pension, and at the same time give everyone a much greater chance to have more funds saved up by retirement AND at the same time it would stimulate the economy through billions of dollars in new private investment, since money the Government was collecting is now being invested in private businesses.