The personal accounts would remain a part of the Social Security trust fund, he notes, but it s a part that you control. It s still there to fund your retirement. It can be used to pay for disability or for survivors, as under the existing system, Lindsey says. It can t be used for education assistance. It can t be used to fund a first-home purchase.
Access is limited to directing the investment of the fund.
We re trying to build up a retirement vehicle, he explains. There may be some good investors and there may be some bad investors, but on average everyone is going to do about as well as the market. According to Lindsey, there are a variety of possibilities that will come down to decisions, presumably between a Bush administration and Congress. By and large, investors will benefit from their own investments, he says, because the personal investment accounts would belong to the individual. But, he admitted, there are a variety of views in the Congress on how that mix occurs.