mrkelley23 wrote:silverscreenselect wrote:BackInTex wrote:
Really? You think SS has worked out well? You probably think the government is giving you something when you get your tax refund.
Compared with the "retirement plans" most workers had in 1935, yes it's worked very well.
Even today, nearly half of American households have no retirement savings whatsoever. Even if those workers had received the extra 7% or so that was withheld for Social Security, they still wouldn't have any savings.
This is a very telling statement to me. Are you saying that people are too stupid to save for retirement unless the government forces them to do so?
I'm not sure what sss was saying. I'm saying that experience has taught us that before the advent of Social Security, seniors often lived in poverty. Now, not so much, and the income guaranteed by Social Security in a large number of those cases makes the difference between poverty and not-poverty.
It's not about stupidity. It's about the availability of suitable investment vehicles and the information (and time) necessary to intelligently evaluate them, particularly in an environment where all too many "advisors" are permitted by law to put their own interests ahead of their putative clients. (That's what the fight over imposing a fiduciary duty on investment advisors is about.) Lots of people, particularly those with lower incomes, simply don't have access to reliable advice.
It's true that they could figure things out on their own, as some of us undoubtedly have done. But many people don't have the time or habits of thought to do so (the stereotype, for instance, is that doctors are terrible with money) and unlike high-income people in that boat, they can't hire someone to help them out. And of course, many good investments require a minimum investment that can take a long time to accumulate. Social Security ameliorates many of those problems and experience has taught us
that it works, which should be the test for any government program. --Bob
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." Thomas Jefferson