Question to those who favor privatizing social security?

[World is Watching]

The government obviously can't be trusted with it. We are on our own.

[Alan Turing]

I supported privatizing social security until I saw the stock market destroy my 401(k). Privatizing is nothing more than a con-artist's trick at best. Good people would be left penniless.

[Curtis 1911]

That is not how it works Louis,,,,,,,,,,,,,See a private retirement account invests in high risk options when you are young, and as you grow older those high risk investments are moved to lower risk bonds, so when you are close to retirement you have mostly low risk investments which are very secure.

If any private retirement company was run like the government runs SS they would be in jail.

SS is a tax, and your benefits can be changed or denied without reason at any time.

How about giving the citizens a choice Louis, if you want to trust the government with your retirement then go ahead and I will trust my 401K.

But see most democrats do not want to give a choice.

[Christopher]

It's better than trusting the government with it(and a President who dips into it to cover his financial @$$ and make up his much vaunted "surplus"). A private agency wouldn't have sat still for that.

[Aegis of Freedom]

"Are retirement funds supposed to be stable and secure?
or are they supposed to fluctuate at the mercy of the stock market?"

That depends on how you plan for your retirement. Did you invest in something secure? Did you choose to invest in the stock market? Did you choose to invest in real estate? Did you choose to invest in starting your own business?

"Your solution is to throw the money into the unpredictable stock market?"
No, the stock market is not trustworthy, so I would invest elsewhere. Maybe real estate, maybe precious metals, maybe start my own business.

It is not a question of stability, is a question of liberty and freedom. I have the basic human right to choose my own retirement option. I can even choose not to retire if I want to. Maybe I like my work and want to keep working till the day I die. The point is that it is my basic human right to choose. The government does not have the right or authority to put a gun in my face and force me into their program at gun point because "it's for my own good".

[IChee]

where do you think your retirement is now ... news flash

[felicia]

Answer. SS should be eliminated. Gimme back what I put in with interest at the rate of inflation. Govt has no biz in the retirement biz (or healthcare for that matter). Govt involvement breeds corruption & bureaucracy. I contracted in IT to SSA. What a waste of tax dollars!

[Kiran C]

It is possible to privatize without losing the security in Social Security. Al Gore had a Social Security proposal that included a provision that allowed people to invest of some of their SS benefits in the stock market. All the Republicans plans that I have seen privatized Social Security but added too much risk to be a good solution.

There are other solution like controlling the growth of benefit using a different inflation index.