Ken, while privatizaton such as something equivalent to a 401k would make financial sense, we are dealing with a lot of power hungry, self serving, greedy politicians who have nothing to gain by allowing privatization unless… they get their tax on mutual fund transactions to skim the SS Trust and 401k’s funds by stealth. They will never allow individually directed private accounts since they claim that some people are too stupid to invest wisely and thus will not have enough for retirement and then draw food stamps, welfare/TANF or whatever they call it these days. The only viable private type account will be some income percentage based monthly check using a defined benefit standard pension fund model.
Bill, you may be correct, however, unless and until the surplus funds are being invested instead of embezzled for the annual operating budget, there is no hope any of us will ever even come close to getting some of our money back. Until the SS trust fund is uncoupled from the federal budget, the embezzlement will continue, so in the meantime, I say come on 2017! The year the embezzlement ends. Then so many people will be enraged and furious at the incompetent libs, that they will finally stop voting for them.
So my advice to everyone is don’t be a victim, take your fate in your own hands, put $100 away every month in an IRA or 401k and invest in the indexes, if you start in your twenties, you will be a millionaire by retirement.
