Social Security ReformFollow

Kerry said that with fiscal responcibility it was possible to stay abreast the demands of social security, and in fact that's what Clinton and congress did. There was some trillions of surplus dollars that could have been used towards keeping SS solvent when Clinton left office. This surplus was aquired through bipartisan balanced budget initiatives of the mid 90's.

Bush came into office and squandered it all, and now we are back at 1991 and have to start repairing this mess all over again.

And as for Bush reforming SS, I think it is obvious that it would be a monumental disaster. Look at this fools track record over the last few years, has he done anything right other than pep rallies? Do you really want the excuse president to start mucking up SS?

That maybe it was a mistake to give another tax cut in the middle of a war.

Privatize social security? In what form will this take? Savings account at your local bank? Investing in a volital stock market? Bonds? Our choice to where it goes? Will there be any way to stop people from accessing those funds before they retire?

Social Security is a way to make sure those of us who might not be responsible enough to save money, but responsible enough to be in the work force for a majority of our life, have something to help us through our elder years.

I think Bush is inviting a whole new generation of homeless old folk with this idea, since I don't see any sort of safe guards.

Bush made great headway with young voters when he said that he plans to allow workers to put a small portion of the tax taken out of their pay checks towards social security into a private account, taking the first step towards privatizing the entire system
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ok, lets look at it for a second.

you take an average person making between 30, and 50 thousand dollars. he takes his meager SS contributions, ***** it, lets say he gets to invest ALL of it himself. lets say he saves from age 25 to age 65, 40 years. "if", a big if, the market averages 10 percent over the 40 years he invested, he can expect his investment to quaddruple every 15 years. his investment will fold 4 times twice, with some to spare. if he is lucky, and reaches the FICA cap, or meets maximum donations every year, which would require currently a sallerie of 87,000 dollars currently,
yes, people who make big bucks stop putting into SS when they reach the 87,000 dollar mark on their paycheck,wana guess which lobbiest group got that passed?,
he will be lucky to have around 300,000 to 500,000 dollars saved when he retires.

a good sum.

but lets look what has happened in the last four years.

i have been donating the maximum into my 401k for 10 years now. currently at 13,000 a year tax differed. i had earned 80,000 dollars total on my investments before bush came to office. then the big tech stok correction, and 911 happened.

i lost EVERYTHING i earned in intrest for the last 10 years. my money is still there, but every dime of interest i earned in the last 10 years is gone. i have 15 years to go before i retire to make it up now. i was looking at a 1 million mark when i started, now im looking at a 500,000 dollar mark if i am lucky.

i will be ok because of other invesments and my retirement plan, but what about some poor schmuck who doesnt have the money to invest as much as i do?

what about the schmuck who was ready to retire this year? or last year? or in the next 5 years?

SCREWED.
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enough about investments.

who is going to pay for SS from the time it goes private till the time the last person collecting benifits NOW dies?

it is going bellie up NOW. and bush wants to stop contributions into the system to let it go private?

who is going to pay for it form NOW untill the last person dies?

the deficit. bush,s spending plan.
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SS is a safety net to catch the people who fall between the cracks of thrifty, and sucessfull investing, and large paychecks.

you take that safety net away, or make it less secure, YOU will be paying for THEM out of some other tax when they do retire.

SS and medicare are safety nets. and with the onset of the 1980,s with buissness take overs, scrupelious companies firing people before they meet retirement age, bankrupt companies, stock market crashes, DIVORCE-what is a spouse supposed to live off of when the money maker takes his pay check and investments and leaves / dies / remarries?

if you touch the safety net, YOU WILL be paying for THEM some other way, probably mroe taxes or more deficit, eventually.

we have a system. it needs work. fix it, but do not destroy it.

Do you really want your SS funds in the hands of people like Kenneth Lay?

Since I'm only 19? None. What's your point?

Twiztid

My point is that most young voters have no concept at all of saving for retirement and I find it hard to believe there's a massive groundswell of young voters chomping at the bit to start controlling their private retirement accounts when they couldn't be bothered to start a savings account at the bank for the same purpose.

"Since I'm only 19" isn't an excuse. I'm sure you've seen those charts showing Guy A who invests at 30 and retires with $560,000 and the guy who starts at 20 and retires with $157 million or something due to compounding interest.

Edited, Thu Oct 14 12:59:41 2004 by Jophiel

Private retirement accounts are fine and all of that but what about the thousands and thousands I have already paid towards my retirement into Social Security?

You guys are missing the point.

Kerry made a very good point last night about the gap between then and now.

Where's that money coming from?

Bush's plan is just more smoke.

"Social Security is a way to make sure those of us who might not be responsible enough to save money..." --Meerkatz

So I am to be penalized because you don't have the self control to save some money on your own, but must be forced to save via taking it out of your paycheck before you see it? ***** that. I can take that hefty chunk of change from my earnings and put it in an IRA and do much better than what SS offers for a return.

Better yet, you take that amount from your paycheck, starting at age 16 and when you quit working at 60 you have millions of dollars in your retirement. Why settle for $200-1000 a month when you can have thousands of dollars instead? Quit allowing the gubbment to make bad decisions for you, Meer.

Totem

It's a lie...

Bush's plan will NEVER happen. There is NO WAY in hell congress will EVER support that.

Answer this please... Why is MY money subsidizing the irresponsible? And why is this American?

Just don't ask the idle wealthy like Kerry's ketchup wife or Smash to help you out, despite being bleeding heart liberals. While your pain makes them cry, it only serves to smudge their bank statements.

Why do you hate the poor, rich Democrats? Why can't you give all you money away so as to better empathize with the those you champion? How much better to give away all your wealth except that what you need to feed and shelter yourself. Alas, such is the two-facedness of compassionate liberalism. At least conservatism tells you you need to become self sufficent, whereas liberals say, "We'll take care of you, just not out of my pocket..."

Totem