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To: willcousa who wrote (103359)	5/12/2000 9:24:00 AM
From: Tom Chwojko-Frank	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

I believe that most of the public is quite capable of making good decisions about their finances. What about the portion of the public who makes horrible decisions? One of my temp jobs between undergrad and grad school was working for public housing in Des Moines. The office was part of the building for the elderly poor. There were some there who couldn't make a sound financial decision for various reasons: lack of access to information, poor education, just plain dumb, etc. Some were there because of their own poor decisions, some just through circumstance (farming obviously is high risk/low reward financially). I would bet that there would be quite a few people in that group who would quickly see their 2% go down to 0, and that loss would be enormous for them. These are the people for whom social security is providing the safety-net, not the people who have the wherewithal to attend estate planning seminars. Remember that the average return to a social security recipient on the dollars he or she invests is abysmal. If the system were merely changed to put all of the money into bank CD's and bar invasion of the funds prior to retirement for any reason the public would be better off. Few politicians or government workers are under social security. They have other plans. Why do you think that is? One reform would be to force these folks to participate in social security. I would be the system would be improved in a hurry. I completely agree with this. Tom

To: willcousa who wrote (103359)	5/12/2000 5:24:00 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

willcousa, Remember that the average return to a social security recipient on the dollars he or she invests is abysmal. If the system were merely changed to put all of the money into bank CD's and bar invasion of the funds prior to retirement for any reason the public would be better off. Again, it doesn't make sense to talk about the return on the money paid into social security, because the money is not invested. The minute your dollar comes in, it goes out. We can blame the person who started the system (FDR) who gave benefits to people who did not contribute. But he is happily resting in peace. It was up to the subsequent generations to fix this, but no one had courage to touch the system. It will take a long and painful transition to change from FDR's pyramid scheme to a fully funded retirement system. The later we start, the longer and more painful it will be. Joe