Posted: 2/17/2007 2:34:08 PM EDT
| What are your feelings on privatized social security? Would it be an improvement over what we have now? I have not had the time to do much research on it so maybe someone can help me out here. |
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Abolish social security as we know it. People should save for their own retirement, and it should not be government mandated. I don't care if that means 90% of America ends up poor when they retire. I don't buy into the Great Society, sorry. I want the old deal. The new one sucks. I don't mind the government encouraging investing for retirement, but it ends there. |
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ss is just welfare for old folks. is too far entrenched to be changed now. expect to pay more and get less, expect the cap on ss tax to go way up, expect ss benes to be taxed eventually. gov feeds and gets bigger and needs to feed more and gets even bigger and needs even more.. |
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I'm not a fan of the Bush plan. The problem I see with it is it's a forced savings plan with limited investment options determined by a government official, so it would provide the state with even more leverage over the market than there is now. This is bad in and of itself but worse in that whenever the state has the power to move markets there are people who take advantage of information to profit at the peoples expense. At the same time, the private accounts do nothing to abolish or make solvent the current SS system in and of themselves, a point Bush eventually conceded after holding out for almost a year refusing to answer any probing questions. The only way they help is if there's a means test that takes the private account into account, as Bush eventually admitted, but such means testing would be just as effective without the forced savings plan, then we could either cut the payroll tax by the proposed amount or retain that revenue to actually make the system stronger. The only way to truly privatize SS is to eliminate it. |
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I'm all for Bush's proposed private SS. It should instead be called "Wipe your own ass America." I also think the age to collect SS should be raised higher. People are living longer than they used to. When SS was first started you collect at something like 66 and life expectancy was 68. Now life expectancy is in the 80's. I'm just waiting for the day that my Roth IRA starts to get taxed. |
It'll never happen. Socialist inSecurity is a Ponzi scheme. It depends on an ever-increasing amount of money poured into it in order to pay off current "investors". We're very, very close to the point where outlays will exceed the payroll taxes feeding the program. After that, in theory, we have about 25 years before the system becomes insolvent... but that depends on the idea that all of the surpluses that have been collected over the last 70 years are in an account and available to make up the growing difference. And that is not the case. There is no "Social Security trust fund". The money is all gone. Once we reach that point, the Fed is going to have to start printing money to pay the difference, and that means growing inflation rapidly eroding the value of SS benefit payments, as well as the paychecks, savings, and investments of everyone, whether they're in SS or no. In theory, it would be a great idea... develop a timeline to go from today's bankrupt system to a wholly-privatized system, and adjust benefits and payroll taxes to tide current and soon-to-be recipients over until the new system is fully in effect. But the Democrats and AARP will never accept that. The idea that the "rich" would have good retirements while the "poor" would continue to be poor in their old age is absolutely not acceptable. They will demand that the current system stay as-is, with ever-growing benefit checks and, as necessary, ever-larger payroll taxes to support the system. That idea is doomed to failure, and every politician today knows it. All they care about is that the collapse happen when they're out of office, so some other schmuck gets the blame. You cannot stop paying SS payroll taxes, unless you become a public employee, or get on with a railroad. But you can create your own retirement. Buy a house and pay it off, so you only have to worry about property taxes and utilities when you're retired. Renting when you aren't working is a guaranteed recipe for being miserable. Open and fully-fund a Roth IRA. Max it out every year, no matter how immediately painful. If you're in the private sector, find an employer who still matches some 401(k) contributions, and contribute the max to which they'll match. Save, save, save. Live frugally. Remember the ants and the grasshopper. But forget about the idea of the ants helping the grasshopper during the winter... remember, the government has been steadily looting their stores, and they barely have enough for themselves. The grasshoppers are going to starve in the gutters, and the ants are going to have the best chance of doing OK. |