Social Security

===Social Security can shift to private accounts that individuals control.===
The hope is to empower the individual and these investment accounts so that people have even more security upon retirement. 
Today's tax for social security drains working people and their families of large sums of money that isn't available as retirement dollars. The present system prevents the passing of present social security savings to their children.
Because African-American males have shorter life expectancies, the system deprives them of benefits. The system forces payments for their entire working lives, giving good returns to some and none for others. To some, Social Security is government theft being a massive, discriminatory rip-off of working Americans. 
===Social Security is not sustainable.=== 
The two older parties won't get into the roots of the problems. Social Security is a bad deal.
Unfunded Social Security obligations are three times larger than the national debt. 
Sensible people want a program that will survive for both parents and children. Proactive leaders are ready to talk about the can of worms that Social Security opens. We must not only ponder these postions, be need to make creditable proposals and informed platform statements about Social Security. Those who sidestep Social Security are not fit to lead in these times.
Younger workers should be able to invest in private accounts with their own names on them. Half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and need a way to build up their own wealth. 
====Calculators jip.====
Whenever money is sent to to the Federal Government, it shrinks. What goes in does not come out. Citizens pay into the system and the paybacks are much less. Throwing money into a negative real return situation as with Social Security is foolish. 
Social security money should be deposited into some safe entity such as a money market fund or a bond fund. With safe investments, the average American would retire as a millionaire.
Both Cato.Org and Social Security.Org have web calculators that illustrate this point. See the difference yourself.
====Transitions====
Some of the fiscal concervative candidates would have voted against Social Security back in the 1930s. But we have been living with Social Security for 70 years. Social Security is a contract. People have been paying in for decades. We can't renege on this contract. There are ways to fulfill this obligation while making a transition. The goal is to privatize social security gradually. Allow stock market investments of Social Security funds. Use approved, safe investments. Don't pull the rug out from under people.
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* Planks about Social Security from Mark Rauterkus
* Social Security-plank-Uhric from April 2007
===Benefit Eligibility===
The debate on Social Security offers an opportunity to point out that gay couples are denied the benefits given to married couples. Unmarried same-sex partners do not receive their partner's Social Security benefits if that partner dies. 
A plan to give gay and lesbian couples the chance to name their beneficiaries might address the inequity in the current system. President Bush's plan to allow younger workers to invest part
of their Social Security taxes in private accounts could help with unmarried same-sex partners. 
=== The trend for American workers is to stay on the job or get other jobs for more years.===
Workers are working longer into their retirement years. People like to be productive. The skills and wisdom of the seniors can be better leveraged in the market place and in our neighborhoods. 
Workers wages and efforts could be examined with details. Pittsburgh could providing new tax incentives for companies to keep on elderly employees. The trend to invest in our people is more appealing rather than investing in a corporation.
===Question: Could the City of Pittsburgh offer its employees some sort of privatized retirement plan? ===
Probably not.
==Insights==
===Should Social Security be phased out?===
• 11.9% NO! All we have to do is start investing the Social Security trust fund in the stock market.
• 9.0% NO! Raise taxes as necessary when the baby boomers retire.
• 23.3% No, but pay down the national debt now, before
the baby boomers retire.
• 11.5% Some. Ramp up the retirement age so the
average number of years for receiving government
checks is brought back down to 5.
• 7.8% Yes. Replace Social Security with a purely aged based
MINIMUM income (comparable to current
minimum Social Security payouts) funded out of
general revenues.
• 13.4% Yes. Replace Social Security with a forced
savings plan for the young.
• 23.0% YES! Complete separation of retirement and
state. Let people plan their own retirement.
• Average Weight = 76.7
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* Heritage Social Security Reform Calculator http://www.heritage.org/research/features/socialsecurity/
** Compare your current Social Security prospects to our Personal Retirement Accounts, customized for your situation.
* Personal Retirement Security System from TheVanguard.org
category:finance