Do you think it is a good idea to privatize Social Security?

[Gator]

should part of it be invested in the free market/stock market or into private savings accounts , a 'lock box' or how about a piggy bank for each citizen?

[dogsngoat]

NO Social Security is a safety net to always be there should everything else fail. Putting it in the stock market defeats that purpose as you could easily lose it all. And with today's deregulated markets, it is very easy to lose everything.

Look at the market now, For the first time ever we've had 2 bear markets in 8 years.

[Matthew F]

Very bad idea.

[Katie]

Actually mine is... I don't pay into social security (though I have at other jobs)... And I feel a lot better knowing that it isn't going anywhere... I will have it totally vested in 5 years and my workplace is paying into it 2 to 1 (up to 7% of my paycheck pretax) of what I am paying into it. So with this alone I am getting 14% free money.

I feel better knowing that some beauracracy isn't going to piss it away before I retire.

Social Security never was meant to be a long term solution.

[OBAMA THE RACIST]

Yes. History has proven that EVERY is better in private hands than Government hands. Look at all the wasted Katrina money. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal said yesterday that more has been done with the 1/4 money that has been privatized to help New Orleans than the 3/4 that the Government has spent!

[harry k]

It funny people think Social Security manages it's money as some sort of "investment". It's actually a ponzi scheme. The current contributors pay for the current beneficiaries. Hence the problem. The population is aging and the ratio between contributors to beneficiaries is shrinking.

What should be done it to slowly abolish it. Keep some benefits for people who have contributed for most of their working lives (say 40 y/o's and above) and allow the others to use the money for their own retirement. You realize that your contribution to SS is matched by your employer. So your 8% is really 16% of your salary. Make it so that it's beneficial tax wise to "save" that for your retirement and let the individual decide.......If you don't save, it's your problem.

Get the gov't hands off of it, they are just moving around the trust fund to cover up the Federal Mismanagement of the budget anyway.

[Jack]

Well just look at the market. The Dow is lower than it was when Clinton left office, while inflation is through the roof!

Had we invested Grandma's SS money in the stock market when Bush took office and NOT touched it at all, right now her nest egg would have HALF of the buying power that it had before investing.

It's called Social SECURITY for a reason. It was meant to be there for us regardless of the state of the economy. I wouldn't want the greedy wall street fat cats putting their slimy hands on my hard earned retirement money!

[PJ]

No. That would be a bad idea.

[bassdoc]

I think it's a lousy idea.
The money from SS is the only thing keeping the government afloat (barely) since all the tax cuts. Without that money we would be in really deep sh*t! (and we already are!)

[Havasoo]

It was not intended to be privatized, and it was intended to be a safety net for people as they come to retirement age. Very few people will have a pension when they retire, companies have a tendancy to let you go before you reach retirement age. It's called restructuring, or whatever, but it's not fair.

Katie will be lucky if she keeps her job long enough to save all she needs for retirement. In this day of buy-outs, mergers and acquisitions, nothing is for sure. So yes, save all you can on your own because SS is not enough to live on anyway, but it is certainly all some people will have in this Corporate inclined society.