Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Amy J who wrote (213529)	12/18/2004 2:39:04 PM
From: neolib	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575466

Why wouldn't it be like an IRA, where you manage it yourself? Risk. If the government lets you lose it in speculation they would probably have to bail you out. Is there any numerical data on what happens to future benefits for those who take the 4% private investment? All the discussion I have seen just talks about "reduced" benefits.

To: Amy J who wrote (213529)	12/18/2004 3:09:03 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575466

Amy, Am for making changes to SS, but Krugman's analysis does give pause - he's saying the management fees would be 20% instead of the current 1%. The problem isn't management fees. The problem is that those in the system are getting much more than they put into the system. Hence the Ponzi scheme. This can't be sustained forever without changes. Of course, Krugman ignores this fact just to make his irrelevant point. Tenchusatsu

To: Amy J who wrote (213529)	12/18/2004 7:15:31 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575466

Careful with those comparisons to Chile. If you haven't noticed, the U.S. is not Chile. :) Our financial markets are some of the most sophisticated and efficient every created by humans. I can almost guarantee you that if privatization occurs, they will keep their fees to 1.5% or less. That's still not cheap, but there will be cheap alternatives like investing in index funds or Fidelity Freedom funds or other horizon type funds that are cheap to manager. Also, if you have a 20-30 investing horizon, don't let those authors use scare tactics like taking the worst 10 year period and saying that is what you can expect your returns to be like. Anyway, I personally feel that privatization is less important than tying your contributions to your social security #.