Social Security (Ecolanguage)

Couldn't I buy my own retirement fund on the open market with the money I would pay to soc sec taxes and get better benefits when I retire and pay LESS than what I'm paying now?

Yes -- and it will work, if you are good and lucky in investing! (Or if the taxpayers will bail you out!) BUT you have to learn about RISK in financial markets. Some people win in the market, so others must lose. 1/3 to 3/4 of all retirees will BREAK EVEN or LOSE in the open market, compared to the return (i.e. the Treasury rate) from Social Security. So do your investments with other money, instead. Social Security is NOT a retirement plan, it is the SAFETY NET.

Social Security is the epitome of how our country has become a welfare nanny state.

No, you still have to hire the nannies!

But it is the perfect epitome of a targeted governmental institution that greatly reduces a common transaction cost, i.e. the cost of HOW to make sure everybody is covered with a baseline retirement, despite the vagaries of life.

Crying about a nanny state always avoids the real question: which is HOW people could attain the perfect knowledge needed by economic theory to make markets work perfectly.

Basic safety nets don't make a nanny state!

You claim that social security is not in trouble. I differ from you. Baby boomer make up 90 million Americans. The current US population is just over 300 million. If you pull US census information, you will see that baby boomer nearly make up 33% of the population. How does this affect social security? Baby boomers are people born between 1946 and 1964. Add 65 years to 1946 and you get 2011. This is when the baby boomers start to retire. When they do, they will consume social security.

Social Security will not be a problem. Google the following phrase: "CBO long term budget outlook" and then hit the top result, which is a PDF from the Congressional Budget Office.

Look at the first chart. As you can see, Social Security spending stabilizes as a percentage of GDP. The baby boomers are already figured into the projections.

Medical spending will be the problem, which is why healthcare reform is important: to bend that "cost curve" downward!

Great video, I just found this again after seeing it about a year ago..

True free markets dont need government bail outs! You must not understand the Austrian Business Cycle and how central banks always cause recessions world wide over and over again. Yes I know the government caused this mess and yet they have the audacity to come in and claim they are saving the day....!

Then after this financial crash, things would still be in bankruptcy courts right now -- and until it was sorted out, most people wouldn't have a bank account, a payroll, or a viable mortgage. They would be living on the street, trying to barter all their possessions, and the economy would be stopped dead.

You have to learn about risk. Stocks out perform bonds but not everyone wins at stocks. Some people lose. In a downturn, even on indexes. According to a Wall Street Journal report, 1/2 to 3/4 of all retirees will break even or lose compared to the return on Treasuries. That's life.

Social Security is a return guaranteed at the Treasury rate.

Want to end Social Security? Start a political party to do so. I won't be joining, it would be the destruction of the U.S., but it's a free country.