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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim S who wrote (37)	9/5/2006 5:59:03 PM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10087

Anyone who thinks Joe Sixpack, not to mention sophisticated SI posters like us, can manage their money is smoking dope. Little guy always loses as do folks with a little knowledge. Only way to make indy accounts work is to offer balanced portfolios with excellent mangager approved by I guess the government. There will be too much money out there for the crooks, charletans and idiots to avoid. We should treat this task as a Pension Fund does and hopefully we will get better investment results and save the SS system to boot.

To: Jim S who wrote (37)	9/5/2006 8:21:58 PM
From: cirrus	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10087

I hear you, but I have reservations. I believe we need a dual system where social security is a safety net for all that goes wrong in the private system. I had a friend who at 34 lost his job due to a corporate restructuring. With his job went his health insurance, term life insurance and other benefits. He kept up with his mortgage and health insurance but let his company life insurance policy lapse, thinking that any new job would offer and a policy to supplement his personal policy, which he kept up. Besides, with two young kids under 5 and no job you can't keep up everything. He found a new job within 6 months but he had to relocate - and took a $30,000 loss on the sale of his home - this was around 1990 when real estate prices in some areas took a dive. Then he died of sudden heart failure a week before he was to start his new job. His widow was in a pickle. Yes, she had some money from his life policy, but no where near enough to maintain the standard of living he provided. Social security survivors benefits provided the edge that made it possible for her to buy another home, restart her career and provide for her her kids in a respectable manner. Her new career is doing very well and I have no doubt that she will in time contribute more to social security than was paid out to her and the kids in benefits. Social Security was a godsend to this woman and her kids. In terms of retirement funds, most individuals will entrust their funds to money managers, just as they now do with their IRAs and 401Ks. Some managers are better than others, but given the number who failed to see the internet bubble I wouldn't bet on the industry as a whole. Even now it seems that every time we turn around there's a new form of financial chicanery in the news - backdating stock options is the latest, I guess. Can individuals do better without financial advice? Some will, the majority will be lucky to get market returns. Some, through forces beyond their control or their own ineptness, will go broke. Social Security will be their only lifeboat. Social Security is a lifeboat not just for individuals but for society as a whole. Without it many more would be on welfare, homeless or otherwise in dire straits. Do we turn our backs on them? I hope not. We as a society pay one way or the other. In terms of health care... the govt run Veterans Administration delivers most cost effective health care available in America by far. Medicare administrative expenses are a fraction of what private sector administrative expenses are. We need to think very carefully before we abandon what has worked well for a generation. The siren song of "privatization" is not without considerable risk, risk that in my opinion has not been adequately considered. ...privatization of SS wouldn't be controlled by a corporate entity, it would be controlled by individuals.