The Case For Not Privatizing Social Security
If there is one thing this most recent stock market crash has demonstrated it is the extreme danger retirement benefits would be in if we adopted a privatized Social Security system.
Proponents of a privatized system have argued for years that private accounts would be totally safe because they would be limited to blue chip stocks exclusively. The type of companies investors would call a sure bet for long term investments. Companies like Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers. What could possibly go wrong if we invested our Social Security accounts in those types of companies?
Apparently everything could go wrong. Both Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers, two of the largest financial companies on the planet, had a complete collapse. Can you imagine if people’s Social Security benefits were tied into those companies?
Think about the pressure this would put on the government to keep these types of companies afloat. The amount of expense to the taxpayer that would have to go into it would be tremendous. Not a pretty picture is it?
Unfortunately, the current situation is not much better either because the Social Security Trust Fund is already guaranteed by the government and ultimately the taxpayer. The way the system was set up, it has become a burden to just about everyone.
Therefore, Social Security should not be privatized, it should be abolished – in a safe and slow manner. Seniors should still get what they paid for and what they were promised, but we must stop being cruel to young workers who are forced against their will to pay into an antiquated system they might not agree with and that might not ever benefit them at all.
Abolish Social Security, pay outstanding benefits by raising taxes or printing money, and allow everyone else to invest their money as they see fit. If some people (rightly) believe stocks are too risky, they can buy government bonds instead, or real assets that preserve their value over the long term, like gold.
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Abolish SS ?? I think not. There are so many elderly folks getting SS as their one income – what would happen to them – and the disabled that can’t work and the mentally impaired folks – and the Medicare that all these people get would be lost – how would they get to see doctors or go in the hospital. No insurance company would insure them or if they did the premiums would be sky high.
I agree SS should not be gambled with – but your solution is just as bad. Now SSI comes directly from taxpayers money as does medicaid – thousands of people live together and get those benefits as they don’t notify the proper authorities that their income is now combined – Thousands get their medicine from medicaid and sell them on the street.
Now which should be abolished??
SSI – a form of welfare OR
SS – an insurance that workers paid into and were promised a retirement income in their older years or if they got hurt and could not work anymore..