If Social Security Had Been In Private Accounts The Stock Market Drop Could Have Been A Disaster

[bripat9643]

The genius of the Social Security Act is that it acknowledges the unpleasant but undeniable fact that there will always be a significant number of Americans living from paycheck to paycheck, even during periods of economic boom; Americans who as a result will never be able to generate the income necessary to save for retirement – and what savings they do generate are used to pay for a car repair or replace the water heater.

The Act also acknowledges the fact that during a recession millions will lose their jobs through no fault of their own, likely to be compelled to exhaust their savings while unemployed, where many won't be able to replenish those exhausted savings.

And the Act acknowledges the fact that society has the right and obligation to safeguard citizens from the adverse consequences of a large number of older Americans no longer able to work who lack the resources to sustain themselves when that day arrives.

The notion, therefore, of 'privatizing' Social Security is completely devoid of merit.

The real genius is the shameless lying Roosevelt did to con Americans into allowing themselves to be looted and robbed.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

Will you ever get out of the past ?

I think Charles Manson said the same thing at his last parole hearing.

Phil Grahm is doing time ?

 

[bripat9643]

Yes, and how many people will fail to succeed in surviving these crashes without damage? How many will have enough or find someone trusted?

In the right wing "future", picture a 90 year old woman in a nursing home, trying to access the DOW to see if she'll get kicked out of the home when there's some dips.........Or try to tell the bastards that run the nursing home, "....wait, I was assured that the market always bounced back..."

Also picture the emergence of a bunch of shysters who will "manage" nursing home-bound people's market portfolio.

In the left-wing "future" elderly will protest in the streets and clash with police because Social Security is broke, and the country is bankrupt. Elderly will be forcibly removed from banks where they used to draw their deposited Social Security checks, and huddle around closed government hospitals and pharmacies desperate for treatment and medication. They will line up for trays of free soup on the street, in the cold. They will burn wood, causing smog throughout the cities, because they can't afford gas heating anymore. And ultimately having swallowed the lies of the left, and ended up impoverished, kill themselves....


View attachment 48820

Elderly fighting with police.

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About to be removed by police, crying in front of the national bank...

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Closed government hospital....

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Closed government pharmacy....

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Being fed trays of soup out on the street....

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Clouds of smoke above Athens from people burning wood for heat.

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Thousands form a shrine to an elderly pensioner who committed suicide. The suicide sparked day so riots and clashes with police.

Unlike the mythical right-wing "future", this left-wing future is here now.... in Greece.

What you see illustrated above is the future of America, if we follow your left-wing ideology like Greece did.

The sad thing about those photos is that the fools in them probably just voted in a socialist government.

 

[nat4900]

The "compromise" my dear right wingers is staring you in your delusional face.......Gamble away with the stock market all you want (the economy and Wall Street bankers need idiots like you to keep up their life style)....but leave SS alone and raise the ceiling of contributions beyond the current $117K.

 

[john liming]

Well, no shit.
If Social Security Had Been In Private Accounts The Stock Market Drop Could Have Been A Disaster

The stock market continued a period of volatility on Monday. Media reports sounded the alarm as the DOW opened 1,000 points down and other indexes took huge hits, only to climb back up a bit later in the day. While that performance, which had some people calling it black Monday, may have knocked a good deal of money out of people’s 401(k) retirement accounts, Social Security benefits remain by and large untouched by such fluctuations.

Some Republicans, however, are interested in changing that.

In June, presidential candidate Jeb Bush said that he thinks the next president will have to try to privatize Social Security. Others have gotten behind the idea as well: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) drafted a plan in 2013 that included partial privatization, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is in favor of using private accounts. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has included privatization in his budget blueprints.

The market drop, and ones before, expose the dangers of such a plan, which usually entails diverting some or all of the money workers contribute to Social Security through their paychecks into private investment accounts. That would put individuals in charge of making smart enough investment choices in the market to make big enough returns to support themselves in retirement.

But the reality is that’s not within reach for most individual people. During a market rout like Monday’s, many people will panic and sell. “We know a lot of people do what economists say is irrational, they sell at a low point,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center on Economic and Policy Research. Research shows that the best thing to do during a downturn is to hold out if possible. But that’s not how most people will react. “People see something like this and go, ‘I better get out,'” Baker said. “When they see the market start to go up, they say, ‘I better buy in,’ and then they’ve lost a lot.”

This is one of the big problems with privatizing Social Security: individual investors don’t tend to be that savvy in chasing higher returns. “A lot of people make wrong decisions,” Baker said. This is even true when it comes to retirement planning: Many people leave money on the table with their 401(k)s by not taking advantage of employer matches or cash out when they switch jobs and incur taxes. The point of Social Security contributions is to make saving for retirement mandatory, he pointed out. But “if you do that and then just tell people to do whatever you want [with the money], then a lot of people will make mistakes and end up with not very much in retirement.”

On a larger level, putting people’s Social Security contributions into private accounts makes them far more exposed to the irrationality of the market. “What’s beautiful about Social Security is that in the long the return workers get on contributions is linked to productivity growth and wage growth,” said Monique Morrissey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “Whereas markets are notoriously volatile and often behave in ways that are not based on the fundamental strength and weakness of the economy.”

Social Security is funded by worker contributions and if the government would stop borrowing from the fund for other purposes there would be no reason to worry about Social Security running out of money. The poster is correct: If Soc. Security were privatized there would be months when beneficiaries would receive little or no benefits at all and the government would go on receiving the contributions of workers interest free -- and the workers would get little or nothing in an economic downtown.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

Social Security will never go broke.

When the trust fund goes belly up, benefits will be reduced to about 70% of what they were. For many, it will be an inconvenience. For some, it's really going to hurt.

But people will not lose their entire benfit.

 

[nat4900]

Grahm is doing time ?

First of all its Gramm.......and unfortunately, like all smart crooks, he is not doing time....He is probably giving suckers like you the middle finger as he and his crooked wife (remember ENRON?) spend the millions they "earned" from the Wall Street bribers.

 

[Andylusion]

The genius of the Social Security Act is that it acknowledges the unpleasant but undeniable fact that there will always be a significant number of Americans living from paycheck to paycheck, even during periods of economic boom; Americans who as a result will never be able to generate the income necessary to save for retirement – and what savings they do generate are used to pay for a car repair or replace the water heater.

The Act also acknowledges the fact that during a recession millions will lose their jobs through no fault of their own, likely to be compelled to exhaust their savings while unemployed, where many won't be able to replenish those exhausted savings.

And the Act acknowledges the fact that society has the right and obligation to safeguard citizens from the adverse consequences of a large number of older Americans no longer able to work who lack the resources to sustain themselves when that day arrives.

The notion, therefore, of 'privatizing' Social Security is completely devoid of merit.

So what happens when it goes broke? Because it *WILL* go broke.

I'd much rather people have an option. Instead of forcing them in a bad system, let them choose to be in a bad system.

IF you are right.. then let them choose to remain in government bonds.

For the rest of us, we want an option. Why are you so bent on making sure that everyone is screwed over? Why can't you allow us the option? Can't stand people having freedom to choose? Why? Why is that so horrible?

 

[Sun Devil 92]

The "compromise" my dear right wingers is staring you in your delusional face.......Gamble away with the stock market all you want (the economy and Wall Street bankers need idiots like you to keep up their life style)....but leave SS alone and raise the ceiling of contributions beyond the current $117K.

Social Security has never been "left alone". It has been changed repeatedly as benefits were increased and taxes were raised. Social Security in it's current form could use a lot of improvement.

Putting bankers in charge is not the answer.

Like most on the left wing...you don't have a clue about your own unwillingness to open your mind.

 

[bripat9643]

The "compromise" my dear right wingers is staring you in your delusional face.......Gamble away with the stock market all you want (the economy and Wall Street bankers need idiots like you to keep up their life style)....but leave SS alone and raise the ceiling of contributions beyond the current $117K.

Looting me even more is a "compromise?"

 

[Sun Devil 92]

Grahm is doing time ?

First of all its Gramm.......and unfortunately, like all smart crooks, he is not doing time....He is probably giving suckers like you the middle finger as he and his crooked wife (remember ENRON?) spend the millions they "earned" from the Wall Street bribers.

So he isn't doing time.

Got it.

When you've got a picture of him giving people the middle finger the rest of your worthless post might take on some merit.

 

[Andylusion]

Social Security will never go broke.

When the trust fund goes belly up, benefits will be reduced to about 70% of what they were. For many, it will be an inconvenience. For some, it's really going to hurt.

But people will not lose their entire benfit.

That's true... as things stand currently. The whole reason it's going to run out of revenue to begin with, is because the cost of benefits is exceeding over time, the revenue. As that trend continues... and it will... the percentage that revenue covers will continue to decline. Eventually it will be so low, as to be ridiculous.

It's already terrible as is. The average Social Security check is just over $1,200 a month. 70% of that is $840. Now if $840 is the new AVERAGE check... that means half of the pensioners are going to be living on less than that, and many a lot less.

That means absolute minimum wage, would be a huge step up from Social Security... and that's after paying into social security your whole life.

If you put the money you flushed away into social security, into any.... as in ANY typical investment, you'd end up way way way better off than $840 a month.

 

[Andylusion]

The "compromise" my dear right wingers is staring you in your delusional face.......Gamble away with the stock market all you want (the economy and Wall Street bankers need idiots like you to keep up their life style)....but leave SS alone and raise the ceiling of contributions beyond the current $117K.

Looting me even more is a "compromise?"

I love how "you all should pay a ton more into the system" is a leftists idea of "compromise".

 

[bripat9643]

Turds like NAT need a Republican to blame, so they point the finger at Glass-Steagall. The one thing they will never do is blame the government.

MORON, Phil Gramm WAS in the government......LOL

Your complaint about Glass-Steagall is that it reduced government control, moron.

 

[bripat9643]

The "compromise" my dear right wingers is staring you in your delusional face.......Gamble away with the stock market all you want (the economy and Wall Street bankers need idiots like you to keep up their life style)....but leave SS alone and raise the ceiling of contributions beyond the current $117K.

Looting me even more is a "compromise?"

I love how "you all should pay a ton more into the system" is a leftists idea of "compromise".

"Heads I win, tails you lose." That's the Democrat motto.

Their solution to every failed government program is to spend even more on it.

 

[nat4900]

What you see illustrated above is the future of America, if we follow your left-wing ideology like Greece did.

Only IDIOTS like you link the failures in Greece to "not investing wisely in money markets for retirement benefits".......Nothing flows into your half brains about Greece's economy versus Germany's while STILL using the same mandated currency......Nothing flows into your half brains about Greece's economy devoid of manufacturing and relying on tourism and olive oil..

 

[nat4900]

Your complaint about Glass-Steagall is that it reduced government control, moron.

Wiggle all you want........LOL

 

[Sun Devil 92]

The "compromise" my dear right wingers is staring you in your delusional face.......Gamble away with the stock market all you want (the economy and Wall Street bankers need idiots like you to keep up their life style)....but leave SS alone and raise the ceiling of contributions beyond the current $117K.

Looting me even more is a "compromise?"

Notice that there is no willingness to knock people off the system who should not be there.

Also, our politicians seem to know there is lot's of fraud, but are unwilling to take it on.

The left is all to willing to call that money "sacred" but they behave as if they have no accountability for the funds.

 

[Andylusion]

Turds like NAT need a Republican to blame, so they point the finger at Glass-Steagall. The one thing they will never do is blame the government.

MORON, Phil Gramm WAS in the government......LOL

No, you don't understand. We're against government interference. Government regulations and controls over the market, is what caused the crash. It was government that pushed, sued, and incentivised banks to make bad loans.

When we say "blame the government", we're not talking about one single dip in the government, we're talking about the entire governmental system that tries to control the market, and ends up causing market bubbles and crashes.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

What you see illustrated above is the future of America, if we follow your left-wing ideology like Greece did.

Only IDIOTS like you link the failures in Greece to "not investing wisely in money markets for retirement benefits".......Nothing flows into your half brains about Greece's economy versus Germany's while STILL using the same mandated currency......Nothing flows into your half brains about Greece's economy devoid of manufacturing and relying on tourism and olive oil..

The far left wing meme continues.......

They never grow tired of repeating it.