{"id":587,"date":"2011-10-14T16:02:54","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T23:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/?p=587"},"modified":"2012-05-31T13:15:18","modified_gmt":"2012-05-31T20:15:18","slug":"social-security-part-ii-what-the-roi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/2011\/10\/14\/social-security-part-ii-what-the-roi\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Security (Part II) – What is the ROI?"},"content":{"rendered":"

But there is more to the Social Security story than that expressed in Part I<\/span><\/a><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course as a former Republican, I would\u00a0expect to have received some \u201creturn\u201d on my investment (ROI)\u00a0 in this \u201centitlement\u201d program that I was forced to enroll in.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s do some more math.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at a reasonable case where I received as little as a 1.8% interest rate (in addition to inflation) on the money that was managed by my elected Republican and Democrat money handlers in Washington.\u00a0\u00a0 Although I am a widower, my account would then be capable of supporting twice the current monthly payout to help provide for a spouse until we both reached the age of 93 \u2013 even if my spouse had not personally contribute a penny into the account.\u00a0 At age 94, we would become the dreaded freeloading entitlement takers.\u00a0\u00a0 But my spouse has already passed, so in this case, taxpayers have already won.<\/p>\n

No self-respecting free market advocate would be satisfied with
\na meager 1.8% return on their investment.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s do some more math.<\/p>\n

Suppose the Republican and Democrat money handlers of my
\nSocial Security \u201cescrow\u201d account had wisely invested the money I turned over to them so that I could realize a 3.1% earnings in addition to the hedge for inflation, my single account would then be able to support myself, my spouse and one other person such as a child, or someone who may have had the misfortune to be disabled, or someone who otherwise is unable to support themselves – for at least 30 years.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m quite happy to contribute to those less fortunate.<\/p>\n

So basically I\u2019m saying to all my Republicans friends and any other opponents of the Social Security system who argue that the system is a form of welfare and is going bankrupt, grow up and DO THE MATH.\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t expect to live to be 110, so you have already won.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You who are our elected officials don\u2019t need to increase the Social Security tax on today\u2019s workers; you don\u2019t need to reduce the payout schedule for retirees. You who are our elected officials do need to take responsibility for cleaning up your money
\nmanagement and accounting skills so we all can see the program is actually solvent and a decent way of helping the 99% prepare for a sustainable retirement.<\/p>\n

What we need is more transparency and better accounting.<\/p>\n

For the American worker, the Social Security\u2019s financial woes have nothing to do with the basic design of this particular government \u201centitlement\u201d
\nprogram as long as elected government officials do not use the account for
\ngeneral operating expenses or perpetual war.\u00a0\u00a0 Its potential financial insolvency is not due to its basic design or philosophy, but rather due to the inept money management \/accounting skills of Congress, not because American workers and their employers haven\u2019t contributed their fair
\nshare to the program.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Although every case is different, I suspect that for the vast majority of American workers,\u00a0 Social Security is a viable earned annuity and not an entitlement used as a pejorative term.<\/p>\n

Knowing the “legal” corruption that exists on Wall\u00a0Street, I have nightmares about turning this vast amount of capital over to them for their\u00a0management \u2013 because it would be gone in a heartbeat.\u00a0 The money managers on Wall Street\u00a0will slyly, silently and certainly divert our savings\u00a0into their\u00a0outrageous bonuses and compensation packages.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Privatization of Social Security is the worst possible alternative for the 99% but the best possible alternative for the 1% on Wall Street.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We 99%\u00a0should be able to educate ourselves sufficiently to sort through the smoke screen of\u00a0disinformation\u00a0and fear mongering\u00a0that the 1% (many of whom are\u00a0in Congress)\u00a0have already initiated under the guise of balancing the budget by cutting “Entitlements.”<\/p>\n

At least I can sleep at night knowing that it is next to impossible for me, as a new retiree, to be able to take more out of\u00a0Social Security\u00a0than I put in over\u00a049 years of contributing to the fund – even if the\u00a0ROI is zero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But there is more to the Social Security story than that expressed in Part I.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course as a former Republican, I would\u00a0expect to have received some \u201creturn\u201d on my investment (ROI)\u00a0 in this \u201centitlement\u201d program that I was forced to enroll in. So let\u2019s do some more math. Let\u2019s look at a reasonable case […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-identifying-unsustainable-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":758,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions\/758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}