I tend to comment on various other sites and don't have the time to blog on my own site.
Anyway here is my response to a plethora of insanity. It wasn't the only defender of the truth.
The others are also worthy, but you have the screen out the nonsense. Fortunately they are usually
obvious.
I know I'm wasting my time, but please ignore 95% of the commetariat. They are trolls and/or
ignorant fools. The author of the main article knows that which he speaks. The commentariat have an
agenda to confuse the public. Plain and simple.
Someone faulted the Social Security Trust Fund for not investing in the private sector. You should
go back and read the historical discussions about why the current method was chosen. Which companies
should the funds invest in? Who decides? What if this becomes political? Do you want your government
choosing which financial instruments to invest and which not?
Thinking of the last 10 or 15 years alone, that would be a very bad idea.
The Social Security Trust fun is used as an accounting mechanism to shore up the budget, but that
doesn't take away the from the fund. It's just assets - liabilities. The assets are still assets. If
the government wants to play games with accounting and every pretends that's okay, the assets are
still assets. The value of the fund doesn't diminish.
It just means our political leaders will eventually won't be able to use the assets in the trust
fund as means to conceal how much money is actually being spent.
It's really that simple.
This is not much different than if someone includes the value of their house as part of their net
worth. Your liabilities are expected to paid out on a monthly basis not different than any business,
or government.
Assets minus liabilities doesn't negate either one. Assets are still assets. The money doesn't get
spent because they aren't cashing in the assets.
Just like when you take a loan out on your house. You're paying off the loan doesn't result in the
diminished value of your house. Your house is an asset not any different then the Social Security
Trust Fund.
The government sells loans call bonds and dollars everyday and everyday people buy them because they
retain value for a long period of time. Using the Social Security fund as an asset to secure these
loans is no different than a customer using their house as collateral.
It doesn't mean the Social Security fund is being spent, no more than your house got sold when you
used it as collateral. The government pays the interest without any problem, so there is nothing to
worry about except stupid politicians and person's with hidden agendas.
And it's an insurance system people.
You think you are so smart and saavy that you can make the right choices and invest in the right
companies at the right times. All while making less then 30, 40, 50 , 70, 100 thousand a year.
Go for it. Many have tried. Too many have failed. And so we base are entire retirement system on
these percentages. Are you so willing to believe that you will be in the win bracket and avoid the
financial shocks that happen once or twice every decade?
Social Security Insurance guarantees a minimum floor of retirement. Otherwise we'd have 30% or more
of our older citizens liveing in abject poverty.
That's why the system evolved from the Townsend Committees in the 1930s. The shock of so many old
people living off of scraps and out of garbage cans by the restaurants. All over the United States.
Oh how we do forget the past.