Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
But what the president proposes won't "encourage people to save." He's talking about borrowing huge sums of money to set up private accounts. This is not saving more -- it's opening a credit line to move money into a savings account, and fooling yourself into thinking you've made yourself better off.
What am I missing?
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Nothing that I can see. I see no encouragement to save in this proposal. In fact, to the extent that it allows people to fool themselves by thinking "look, I have this SS account - I'm saving!", I think it hurts.
And, he's right that the old will always have the power to demand more, and to demand rescue when their accounts trash, and to demand higher payouts, and lower setoffs . . . . There's going to be political clout in that demographic for decades.
And, "choices"? Individual investors who can't spend tons of time on research, or who don't have the skills to do research, don't do well picking investments. So, practically speaking, we'll end up with ten or so government-approved boring, safe, low-return investment vehicles. Why not just go back to the lockbox approach, and save all the mess of setting up a new system?
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