Those of you afraid of Social Security Privatization please explain?

[Thedude27]

A scenario in which the Stock market drops to 0 (or very low) for an extended period of time and in which the US government is able to continue to pay out Social Security payments given that drop?

Seeing as there would be almost no tax revenue to operate with in that scenario.
Bonus question:

Where does the money that is used to pay out social security come from?
Francine, the "jerks" are asking for some sacrifice from you so that the next ppl that are expecting retirement money wont go to the SS office and be told "sorry we are all out of money, go fend for yourself.". They arent doing it because they are mean. If you dont like this system I suggest you stop supporting it and pick one that doesnt operate at a huge loss.


I'm curious as to how you lost all the money from your investments since the DOW is close to where it was before the huge crash and all common investment advice is to invest in low-risk funds when you are close to retirement age.

Also had you been in the market for your entire working life with the same amount as they take from you each paycheck you would have FAR more $ than the government would be providing you.

[Bullseye]

Only liberals are afraid of this as it removes lots of money from the General Fund.

Everyone knows what needs to be done:

1. Eliminate several useless Federal Departments. You can start with the Department of Education, The Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Agriculture.

2. FIRE all of the "czars".

3. Re-write the tax code and move to either a value added tax or a national sales tax, or a combination of both of these. Simultaneously dramatically reduce the size of the IRS. A Flat Tax would also be acceptable.

4. Raise the retirement age for Social Security and raise both payroll deductions for Social Security and Medicare by 1/2 of 1% each. At the same time pass legislation keeping these monies separate from the General Revenue. Raise the maximum on Social Security deductions by at least $25,000.

5. Audit every government agency including the Federal Reserve. Legislate a 15% reduction in personnel for all remaining Federal government agencies and or departments, while freezing all new hiring for 3-5 years.

6. Completely re-write the Health Care Bill.

[John Doe]

Even if it drops 40% that would be better than it all being gone like it is now with the government pissing it away as it comes in.

[zealousbath387]

I will admit I do not know a lot about the stock market but I do know thousands of people have lost all of their money without the stock market dropping to 0. The stock market is not one entity that you invest in. You invest in the companies that are part of the stock market and those companies can crash.

[rockfish]

tax payers money should never be available to private use.

[G]

the stock market dropped to a bit over 6k a few years ago... SS payments from the gov. were totally fine...

if all payments were private, that would have been a loss of around 50 percent for every person out there... at that time...

people wouldn't like that... maybe you would... maybe your friends would... but overall, most people wouldn't...

maybe even... in theory... you could say that they would have still made more at the 6k than using gov. SS... but it's all about the panic and the mood of the people...

that's a lot of people who's entire retirement savings are at the whim of the market... all it would take would be a scare to get everyone who ever thought about supporting this idea to be kicked out of office...

the gov. can always opperate in the red... many old people can't...

[Oldwhiteguy2earth]

Sorry, you have gone above the heads of most people on YA. People don't understand the stock market, revenue, profit and loss, property ownership, etc. People don't realize that there is intrinsic value in the nation's companies, even if emotions drive the price of stocks down 80%, as in the Great Depression. A majority of people think you have to be a criminal first, before you become a CEO. That's what the media has told them. That's why it was impossible for Whitman and Fiorina to win.

People asked Warren Buffet what it was like to lose a billion dollars in one bad market day. He said, "lose? I haven't lost a cent - I haven't sold anything."

The market is at 11,000 now. My holdings are at the same level they were when the market was at 14,000.

[Janet]

Money invested in the stock market will only serve to allow the CEO, CFO, and VP"s of the investment houses to retire well. You will end up living in a converted chicken coop while they live the high life on your hard earned money. The GOP will do nothing to stop that. They thinks it's good.

[Francie S]

I have done fairly well in the stock market which I chose as part of my retirement that is not taxed until I use it. But all that is GONE now, to include $10,000 of what I put in myself. I'm 3 yrs from retirement. If my SS was privatized I would really hate it that I would have lost most of it as well. Later age to retire. I GUESS so, like 85!

Now 85 may not look so bad to all you office types who don't abuse your bodies day after day doing hard labor, but for people like my husband who has worked hard all his life physically, his body and not yours either will hold up much past 70 to the level necessary to continue the work he does. The jerks that suggest raising the retirement age are the ones that are sitting pretty with their Senate or House retirement, not regular people like us, but the elite politicians like Boehner who have lived off the tax payers so long, they have NO idea what real work most people do. the most strenuous thing he does apparently is play 164 rounds of golf per year. Now while that is strenuous, it's not hard labor!!

[whosudaddynow]

My 401K plummeted when the bubble popped.right at a time when I lost my job.