I still think there should be an opt out, but only after submitting your current investment portfolio for review. If you can prove you can manage money, fine, here’s your SSA money that you can manage on your own. That way the people heavily invested in scratch off tickets and NASCAR commemorative plates have to continue letting the government handle a little piece of their retirement planning while the non-cluess can seek a better return.
It has nothing to do with trusting the govt. If you don’t have a safety net like this you will still pay though your taxes. The only option you have is do you want people to pay in for their own retirement, or do you want to cover it for them through taxes?
having an “opt out” is a joke. everybody will opt out and take their chances knowing they are covered. A review system is a joke since the cost would be higher than just having a poorly run social security system in the first place.
Screw the review system. That’s the same thing, still up to the government to protect you from yourself. Just send everyone a questionaire: “If you want the rights to your money, you have to take back responsibility for yourself. Check yes or no.”
Fucking FDR destroyed the American republic. When the government assumed responsibility for the peoples’ wellbeing it had no choice but to take the peoples’ rights too.
Speaking of money in social security, any one have more info what Ron Paul was talking bout during the debate that the US government is pulling money out of SS and using it to pay for wars and stuff?
yeah, it really sucks being in a modern first world nation.
We are trillions of dollars in debt. Do you really think there is some secret stash of fressh 100 dollar bills that magically pays for social security?
I can only assume that Ron Paul is saying that taking on any debt is robbing from SS’s future stability. This is true, but there is no specific / active transfer of funds from SS -> war.
Well if people are saying that SS relies on interest of the fund, then yes, I would assume that there is a pool of money that sits and should be earning interest.
I see the same problem with the national debt as our political system…people are strongly divided.
We should have no parties and just vote on the best candidate for AMERICA as a whole. There should be no lobbyism or slanderous ads allowed either.
Also I believe the national debt needs to be looked at as a whole THEN segmented. It shouldn’t be as wildly segmented as it is, like an accounting shell game.
At the end of the day the balance sheet is either in the red or in the black. We are WAYYYYYY in the red. Fundamentally we’ve been bankrupt for a long ass time.
As many have said already, you cannot have a withdrawal and manage your SS funds yourself as you would collapse the system.
So much to rant about, so little time. 
Just saying a review system still places the responsibility on the government rather than the individual. That opens things up to “hey you said I would be OK and now I’m not so now you have to make me OK.” I’m saying fake personal responsibility is a waste of time.
Unless the review system would be in anticipation of people who go on their own and fail being provided for anyway, in which case the whole thing is a farce.
it’s a no win situation… everybody will take maximum risk if they know they are covered no matter what.
This has so much history in our country.
Washington:
“To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones.”
Thomas Jefferson:
‘If I could go to heaven, except with a political party, I would rather not go there at all.’
‘I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.’
And look what two major things are ruining our country. The banking system/fed and political parties. People don’t realize the intelligence the founding fathers had.
Yeah I think now (meaning 1935 through present) that we’re here there’s no going back. Opt-out is a worthless talking point. It will collapse the scheme, er, system. and just result in a lot of people opting out and then voting themselves a new program to help them later in life.
Collapse now or collapse later? At least now I will be able to have my money. It collapsing in 2050 when my generation retires after I lost incredible amounts of tax money into it its more of a loss.
Hell, I would even be ok with saying goodbye to anything I put into it to date and not having to contribute to any government retirement program again.
Meh. Washington was the only president not heavily involved in party politics, Jefferson included. Jefferson and Madison squared off against Hamilton and Adams from the day Washington left the capital.
Meh, even with a review system some peoples investments would fail, and some would succeed in feeding themselves for the rest of their lives.
Stock market crashes - millions of old people living on the streets.
What these guys said. When people are broke and old and sick with no SS, we either let them die of poverty or we get stuck paying for it anyway. Same as health care. I’d rather force them to pay in since we’re going to get stuck paying out for them either way.
Or they just decide to go back and say “no” to people instead of thinking everyone has a right to get premium care. Having a job and good health care at little cost to me should be a privilege of going to school and working for a career. Someone paying little to no taxes, has 4 kids, and going to the ER in an ambulance for things like “My baby is crying” (I know ER doctors and this is one of the many things they have wasted their time on) is causing the problems of high costs.
Worst case, create a general pool for health care like they do for social security and allow people who pay into it to be treated with basic care. Not paying taxes? Then you are not taken care of unless you can front the cash. This country is broke as shit and needs to stop with free handouts for people not paying into the system and be run more like a business instead of a soup kitchen.
Government-run health care? Word.
People with no insurance abuse the system, like you said above. If we make them buy their own insurance, the free ride stops.
That said, this is the SS thread. Healthcare is in the other 17,000
I see this thread got politisucked