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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sedohr Nod who wrote (672215)	2/15/2005 1:29:02 AM
From: Cogito	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

>>You used the term "quite good return"...The fact that someone collects more due to longevity has little to do with it being a good return...They just get screwed less.<< Don - I'll grant that "quite good" is hard to quantify, and individual mileage varies. Analyses have been done on the rate of return for Social Security, contrasting those returns against hypothetical private accounts. It's clear that the rate of return you calculate depends a lot on the set of assumptions you use. See the Heritage Foundation site, for example. heritage.org This page talks about how the Foundation's study has been criticized by groups on the left. When I look at their numbers I can see why. They present a table that purports to show the difference between the rate of return in private accounts and in Social Security. According to this table, at best, a person born in 2004 could expect a return in a Private Account that would exceed the return for Social Security by 1.16%. For most of us, the difference would be much less. For example, if you were born in 1964, you could expect a difference of 0.26%. But I don't see where they account for the administrative costs of the private accounts, which would necessarily be far higher. Administrative costs in England have meant that people who opted for the private accounts plan in the 80s have lost money, relative to the goverment plan. Ideally, we'd have a system where people could opt in or out of Social Security. But if people opted out, we'd somehow have to ensure that they would put enough money into private retirement accounts to prevent them from becoming greater burdens on society. - Allen