The point is, for what people put into the system, they should be getting a better retirement than $1230/month. Social Security is roughly a 12.5% withholding from your income for typically 40-45 years. If, instead, you withheld 3% and bought T-Bills with the money, you'd have better than a $1230/month retirement (almost $2500/month, actually). $1230/month is roughy the equivalent of minimum wage, or $7.50/hr.
Flawed math. The $14,760 is $3600 ABOVE the poverty level for 1 person. $29,520 is WAY above the poverty level for 2 people...
So you agree with partial privatization of social security!!! awesome. You will have to come up with something aside from talking points to convince me it's not a good idea. Why is it a good idea? Right now, 12.5% is taken out of everyone's paycheck (up to $106K). Take out 9.5% and use as they do now - to make the existing ponzi scheme viable for the short term. Take out 3% and put in something like a mandatory 401K or pension plan, with govt. approved fund managers. Still taking out 12.5%, still funding the transfer of wealth from this generation to the retired one.
Hell no I don't agree. Ok let's turn over our social safety net to wall street. That's smart... And when under Bush we were trading UNDER 7000 but you want to put people's money on the market. Right now if the market crashes (and it's trading over 13,000 under Barack) people's money would be lost.
Peoples' money isn't lost when the market has a downturn. It's lost when companies go out of business. Or if people sell all their stock at a significant loss. You said the stock market was 7000 during Bush's term. What's it at now? And we're not turning over our social security safety net to wall street under this scenario. There's still 9.5% of peoples' incomes funding the ponzi scheme part.
Half the marriages don't last, and the one income earner ends up not being able to afford property taxes on what Social Security pays. Let me know what you can rent for ~$350/month near you, because that's the kind of housing SS pays for.
He's great for Wall Street. Big insurance, the banks, etc., got hundreds of $billions, if not $trillions from the guy. To boot, the Fed has interest rates so low there really isn't any place to invest money besides the market, unless you want to make < 1% in a savings account. 1% doesn't even keep up with inflation.
Funny thing is, in a robust economy with the same interest rates and influx of money into the treasury, the DJIA would be around 20k. Of course, inflation is going to hit hard and hit soon once the inflated bonds are left sitting instead of being purchased.
When, not if, this thing bursts, it is going to hurt the middle class. The rich will make money off it. The common "investor" and those relying on their 401ks are going to take a beating.
Think of the bondholders for GM, but on a much larger scale. 401k plan are going to become worthless for the average middle-class schlub like myself. Some of those holding GM were middle-class 401k people not even knowing they were screwed over by the GM takeover. Imagine what happens when the money starts leaving the US markets?
glenn beck pretty much nailed it, the next bubble will be the money/asset bubble, and likely the last bubble for a long long while buy guns and penicillin
