So with all the hype about the life of SS should Bush get his way and privatize it.
It is to late for me to benefit from the change, but I would be glad to see it updated to invest.
As it has been laid out, it would be the same type of investments as 401ks.
People wouldnt be able to draw it all out at once and could only take payments.
I like the idea of being able to pass it on to your kids. I should have a pretty good egg if and when I retire. So I will most likely not need my SS, but it would be great to give it to my kids and let it grow further for their future.
I would much rather see my or my kids SS grow in an account and know that the goverment doesnt have their hands on it. Hell even if it wasnt growing is a better return than the gov gives.
I know there is alot of hype and partisan politics over this issue and storys of why it is good and why it is bad.
From all I have seen and read and been able to determine as true or hype I think it is a better way to go.
I dont care if SS will be solvent in 10, 20, 30 years. I would rather see my kids SS build for them and know that they have the right to use it as they see fit, hopefully without as much gov mettling.

Anyway, Privatize or not. That is the question......

Sled...

 

Leave SS alone. I'm not with Bush on this one. He had better back off or it will cost the Reps in '06. Either do away with SS for the younger workers like me or leave it alone.

 

Privatize it (partially, as is the suggestion). Or better yet, let me opt out of it completely. I'll gladly not collect it if I don't have to pay it. I'm not planning on getting any of it anyway.

 

The devil is in the details and the details don't even exist yet.
The President said this SS investment plan would be like the one Federal workers have however, they can make a lump sum withdrawal which would not be allowed in the SS plan. I guess that's why you could pass it down to your kids because there's a chance you won't recieve all you have 'invested'.

I love the little play on words where the President said "these funds will be invested and the government can never take them away"

'take them away' does NOT mean that the government won't tax the hell out them.

I don't have a dog in that fight because I don't have enough quarters for SS anyway.

One item I can't believe he can push with a straight face is the health care savings accounts.

You have as much chance keeping pace with healthcare costs as you do with college tuition.

Look at your budget (unless you are wealthy), what is the LAST thing you are going to invest in?

Your 'healthcare savings account'.
But, the President says this is a good thing so, every week you put $15 in your healthcare savings account.

You get sick, go into the hospital.
They give you an aspirin for $42.
They give you a foam eggshell mattress pad $175.
(keep that, you'll need it when they bounce your *** out on the sidewalk after four days)

When you have saved about $1800 in your healthcare savings account you will be good for one nights stay and two tests.


The hospitals won't be interested in your Ins card.
They want to see your monthly 'savings' statement.

Healthcare Savings Account =
'If you can't afford to get sick, don't.
What a joke.

 

Privatizing SS is just another way to have stockbrokers make money off you.

The majority of Amercians can't even balance their budget and you're gonna let them save for their retirement????

You'll see millions of older homeless people

 

SS is gov't gone awry. It was never meant as a personal retirement fund but people are so dependent on the gov't for everything now it is sad. I'm 29 and don't plan on getting anything from SS when it is my time.

If benefits are available my kids will be paying so much I'd rather not have it.

I'll take care of myself and mine...if I could get out of SS I would in a heart beat.

The way I view it...SS is a tax that I get no benefit from...just more wasted money.

100% privatization or bust....literally

Jim

 

Why not do it like they do for the Alaska oil dividend. You have an office whose sole job is to manage part of it like a mutual fund. It's done pretty well and you don't have anyone trying to be "investors getting taken by stockbrokers".

I don't believe letting the vast majority of people doing thier own investing is the way to go, too many morons trying to invest and too many crooks to take it from them.

Have a relative small team, not a typical government agency full if bureacrats, but a team of economists manage say about %15-%20 of the kitty in the market.

Regardless of what if anything is done, the first thing they need to do is put ALL SS money off limits to Congress. Make it to where those crooks can't spend it.

Yeh, I'm a stupid little dreamer....

 

I agree with that, but it should be like say my 401k. I can not pick particular stocks, just investment portfolios. I believe that is what is being proposed. Invest in certain portfolios that have a record of return. My 401k, I can invest in 5 or 6 portfolois ranging from safe to higher risk higher return (maybe). I dont think any of the investment options for SS should be high or even moderate risk.

And it does need to be regulated so as the brokers arent makin more $ then the investors. Each account should also be insured incase of an Eron type of deal that would protect the $ invested.

Sled...

 

I am all for changing the current system, which will generate an abysmally poor return for most payers.

Let's wait until we see the details. But last night Bush said that his plan will only privatize a SMALL % of your total SSI contribution, and the government will offer protections for those that have the bad luck to retire right after the market crashes.

 

I'll tell you what also will happen. You'll have the haves, thru wise, maximum investments and the have not's, thru minimum amount, poor investments and then there will be those who will feel it only right for the haves to pony up for the have nots. Higher tax rates for those with high returns also.

I don't think anything will happen because of the partisan politics. If it does, it'll be full of your typical special interest crap that politictions can't seem to avoid.

 

Take another gander at the financial houses and their privatization replies. Non committal is the response. Why you ask? It doesn’t make sense for the firms in handling the vast amount of calls that would be placed to them everyday with people asking about their portfolios. Most people can’t even balance their check book and over 60% of all people currently working don’t even utilize the retirement plans available to them now (ie, 401k, Sep, Simple, IRA, Roth). The infrastructure alone in handling the customer service issue alone would cost the firms billions and would result in little to no return. The reason why? The government will regulate who and how much could be charged. Look at the Railroads, any one of them, even though private has their own Social Security plan, they do not contribute to the SS plan as we generally know it. Those plans are regulated and only a few of the “houses” handle them. Their investment selections are limited and do nothing in the way of making your money work harder than simply investing in a T-Bill, Note or bond. The end result?; you were no better off than letting the government supplement the return’s realized than offering the US Treasury securities in the first place. So you have to ask yourself where the agenda in all this is. That would be the better question? It’s definitely not the financial houses.

 

With the current SS system, a retiree can expect to get back about 22 cents for every dollar he's paid in his lifetime. SS is a horrible investment and is nothing more than politicians stealing our money. If the payment is supposed to go towards SS (it says F.I.C.A. next to the dollar amount for those of you looking at a paycheck stub), then it should not be siphoned off into General Funds with nothing left behind but an I.O.U. SS is still taking in more money than it's paying out, but in 2018 the Ponzi scheme will turn upside down. Then they will actually need to start paying back all the money they have been stealing from us all these years. So what's wrong with letting people control 2% of their own SS money anyway? Do you think that the average American will get less of a return than the wonderful returns given us by SS? It's a lousy 2% (maybe as much as 4%) of your FICA investment. AND it's volountary, so if you prefer to let Uncle Sam continue controlling all of your SS money than you don't need to do anything.

 

SS as it is, is a classic pyramid scheme. If I ran a bank in the same manner, I'd be in jail.

 

SS is an equated system at best. I don’t believe that FDR had in mind that it would continue in its existence to this day. It could be argued that it was a necessary governmental intrusion at the time (after the Great Depression) but has long surpassed it’s usefulness in present day. I do believe it is wrong in the government continually “borrowing” from it to meet it’s budget restraints each year, but we (us on this message board and US citizens) voted for the people in office that make these decisions. Whether or not you did or did not vote for your elected official is beside the point. If California can recall a Governor and we the people can impeach a president (Nixon) why do we stand by ideally when other officials do wrong in our minds by not entrusting our future retirement dollars for SS?

 

22 cents on the dollar? that's horrible.

Let me invest it as I see fit and I will end up being a have.

Years ago I would have poured it all into ENRON and rode the wild ride on the tiger, woohoo!