"Every time someone tells me that social security should be privatized I tell them to ask former Enron employees how their private plan fared."
Point well taken, cirrus. And, according to the news today, Delta Airlines' pilots may be in a similar condition.
But I don't think that's a fair comparison -- privatization of SS wouldn't be controlled by a corporate entity, it would be controlled by individuals. A more apt comparison would be to the current SS system going broke some time in the future, just as Enron did and Delta is doing now. If people have money in their OWN accounts, controlled by themselves, similar to our IRAs now, that wouldn't happen.
I'd much prefer to have my SS in an account that I own and control. If that account collapses because of my own management, it will be MY fault, not some amorphous corporate (or government) agency.
I see two reasons that many don't like the idea of privatization of SS: One, some may be better investors than others, and that wouldn't be "fair" to those too lazy to learn to manage their money. And Two, it takes a lot of power away from those who want to use the SS network as their own private slush fund. |
