Moreover, because the productivity of workers will also increase, we can all expect to earn more and live more comfortably in the future, both before and after we begin to collect Social Security. It's time to promote reform that truly strengthens Social Security and eliminates poverty and near poverty among all the elderly. We can do this by increasing benefits for the lowest income earners and elderly survivors, returning the full retirement age to 65, eliminating the cap on taxable income, and investing the trust fund in higher-yield but totally safe government securities such as Fannie Mae mortgages. Carving private accounts out of Social Security is the wrong direction for reform. Private accounts would transfer even more wealth to those who are already on top financially and guarantee government handouts to Wall Street, rather than economic security to working families.
Stock markets go down as well as up.
Private accounts would eliminate the guarantees our current system provides for all workers and their families and leave some people worse off. They would particularly harm those who suffer misfortune early in life or who have the good fortune to live a long life, as well as most low and middle-income earners. Social Security isn't broken. It's time to rescue the program from sound bite politics and the phony lure of easy riches. Now is the time for everyone who cares about the economic security of all America's working families to make their voices heard.