Bottom line children. Take it from an old lady. If you want the “benefits of private ownership” don’t forget the RISK. If you want retirement investments, do your own investing. The government that “controls” your private SS account giveth, but the next government can taketh away.

My usual income is in the $20-26,000 range but my last job was outsourced to Canada and India a year ago. In 1994, I was making $12.50 an hour. Ten years later, the best I’ve been able to find is $10 (that’s with no guarantee of 40 hours/week and laughable healthcare coverage). And I read yesterday that the cost of living has risen 34% since 1992.
As Tom DeLay so eloquently put it: “Congress needs its $3,100 COLA to keep from losing purchasing power.” For once, I agree with him. So where is my $16.75/hour job?

I have a BS and post graduate degree (which I paid for). I have also paid for training and re-training. This year, I would be eligible for early retirement (at 62) but I can’t survive on $875 SS a month BEFORE taxes. If I can keep working until 66, I’ll get close to $1100 a month. That will be enough to keep me going if I can find part-time work. And if I can stay healthy.

I bought a little house for $35,000 in 1978. Now some cars cost more than that. The house is now worth over $175,000. Nice! But it needs a new roof and some foundation repairs, new gutters, 3 new windows, some major yard work — about $15,000 minimum.
Bottom line again — I own, I have equity, but I also have expenses and I have RISK. The last time the value went to about $80,000 in the early 80’s, but it also went back down to about $45,000 in the late 80’s. Who knows where it will go now. And if I sold it, where could I afford to move?
My 35-year old refrigerator is on its last legs. Ditto my 1983 Honda and my 1998 computer. And I’m out of work. Can’t hope for a rich relative to die and leave me a pile: I buried the last of them over 5 years ago. Bottom line again! Take care of yourself! Pay yourself first in a retirement plan YOU control. And stay in touch with your kids — you may need them in the future.

KIDS (that’s anybody under 30)! Don’t let the flimflam fool you. The “Ownership society” has rewards AND risks. The biggest risk is the big boys still control you and they can yank it away as easily as they can give it out. Remember, private SS accounts take money FROM your SS and COST money to administrate.
The most telling fact about the latest “experimental” proposal is it’s temporary (so they say). Only going to last for about 11 (?) years. But the bureaucrats will have to be paid for the next 60 years to keep track of the accounts until you retire. Guess what argument will be made at the end of the “experimental” proposal?
What a good deal — for the bureaucrats anyway.

This is a great example of CONservatives love to lie more than they love life itself. With no changes to the social security we are solvent until the mid 21st century, at which point some 80% of the benefits would still be getting paid by payroll taxes. At that point we could either cut benefits by 20%, raise the retirement age, remove the wage cap on those who only currently get a portion of their wages garnished, or fund it through other tax means (like the current deficit spending which the administration seems to have no problem with).

The GAO specifically stated that if we removed the wage cap so that everyone gets the same percentage of their wages taxed – even the wealthy, then SS appears to have no end in sight of its net positive.

All I can ask Randy is why do you hate america so much? It’s clear you don’t care enough to tell the truth, so I all I can say is you must hate it terribly…

Ever the GOP shill, let’s cover some of your more ludicrous points:

Fast forward to 2005 and program is going to collapse under its own weight within the next decade.

Better stop drinking that GOP kool-aid son, the GAO said SS is solvent until 2041, which is in the next three and a half decades.

President Bush wants to revamp the program to give us greater control and to prevent any further usage of the slush funds.

Damn kid, you can’t get ebough of that GOP kool-aid! Privatizing SS won’t give us “greater control” as you put it, since the government will still dictate what investments people can make under the Bush plan.

And those “slush funds” you seem so concerned about the government spending is exactly what Bush so desperately relies upon. How else do you think he can maintain tax cuts and spend over $300 billion on foreign wars?

Now I can see why the democrats are so angry.

I don’t know if Democrats are angry per se, but it sure isn’t pleasant for us to have to constantly correct GOP shills like you in this debate.

Your penchant for misinformation is bar none.

Idiots like Gelertner at yale who talk about it in terms of retirement accounts are just blithering idiots…

That is about a 67 percent increase.

We’re at the “puke point.”

or their constituents.

Save Social Security. Eliminate the $89,000 payroll tax cap.