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Originally Posted by UtahTex";p="
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Originally Posted by EuP";p="
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Originally Posted by mpotter
Now he calls the concept "personal retirement accounts." He claims this Social Security "reform" would give individuals "control" over their own future -- as in control to blow it as well as protect one's retirement.
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Sounds fine to me. We're all adults; we don't need the government running a piggy bank for us. |
I disagree. When it comes to long range planning for retirement, the KNOWLEDGE required to successfully invest your savings, the DISCIPLINE required to create an adequate retirement, and the FUNDS available to the individual in order to actually contribute to this plan, a significant percentage of the population is NOT "adult" enough to succeed. What a plan like this would do is to create a brand new indigent class of Seniors. And these indigents would then fall to the government to rescue.
The stock market and other investment avenues are much too volatile and complex for the average waitress, or construction worker, or truck driver to maneuver successfully. And these folks don't have the extra cash to squirrel away in the first place. Most of them are just getting by from paycheck to paycheck.
I used to believe that having the freedom to dictate how Social Security finds would be invested was a great idea. And for me and many others, it might well be. But for what I would guess is a MAJORITY of Americans, it would be a catastrophe. I have changed my opinions considerably over time. |
This is my reason for posting this article. Basically I agree with EuP that people should be allowed to control how much money is taken out of checks for retirement and where it should go, etc, but I think that the market has turned into a casino over the past 5-10 years where the house tends to gobble up those who don't understand the fluctuations and trends. I have an IRA that has been doing fine over the past 10 years, increasing quite steadily with some bumps here and there, but I've heard that a lot of folks that just invest into it without paying attention have lost their shirts. They don't even have what they put in let alone an increase in funds. This would be compounded if this were the only way to save for retirement. We have to remember that most Americans don't have the same understanding of the dollar as you do, especially those who need to worry about it most. Those who can't afford a financial advisor, ect.