The main issue I see with privatising any social infrastructure (I made the same arguments when here in the UK they privatised pensions) is a company will make a profit from it. This profit will be taken from the social fund and it is money that could be used to enhance the fund.

I bet they will keep trying to privatize it,they will try to sink Social Security to ” justify” its privatization in the name of a more efficient management.

My name is George W. Bush and I approve that plan.

The Declaration of Independence declares “all men … are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men …”

The Preamble of the US Constitution shows how these rights are to be secured including “provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare”.

Two clear distinctions should be made here:
Provide implies actively and financially supporting, promote implies a more passive approach.
For example, I’ll promote that we put on a grand feast, but I want you to provide it!
General Welfare is not the same as individual Welfare. General Welfare would benefit the people generally; individual Welfare targets a certain segment of society to benefit, such as the poor.
Social Security is a form of individual welfare not authorized in the Constitution.
The Constitution grants no authority to the federal government to administrate a Social Security system. The Constitution Party advocates phasing out the entire Social Security program, while continuing to meet the obligations already incurred under the system. Until the current Social Security system can be responsibly phased out, we propose that:

The Social Security tax not be a “rainy day” fund which politicians can pirate, or from which they can borrow to cover their errors and pay for their excesses.
Individuals who have contributed to Social Security be allowed to withdraw those funds and transfer them into an IRA or similar investments under the control of the individual contributor.
Any sort of merger between the U.S. Social Security System and that of any foreign country be banned, so the distribution of benefits will not go to persons who have not qualified for payments under American law as legal residents.
Earning limitations on persons aged 62 and over be removed, so that they may earn any amount of additional income without placing their benefits at risk.
Those provisions of the Social Security system which penalize those born during the “notch years” between 1917 and 1926 be repealed, and that such persons be placed on the same benefit schedules as all other beneficiaries.

The market goes up, the market goes down and then up again. The way you state it, it seems as though you believe all investing has become worthless. Although I am still paying social security, I have privatized my retirement fund and I will have far more money than SS has ever promised me. In fact my funding of SS will probably go to unprepared people like you.

The government’s program is pretty much guaranteed to fail before I am old enough to see any of it.

So I would rather have the risky stock market than the guaranteed failure of the government program.

As you see people see the bubble but never the burst… They will continue doing it because if I would had put all my deductions in private investment the market would have had crashed a long time ago with my retirement.

Wrong!!!!! The Social Security system is going bust. I was looking at my statement the other day. Since 1983 I have contributed over $200,000 to this program and I don’t think I am going to see a dime of it when I retire.

My 401K program has 1/2 that amount in it. That is my money, why can’t I invest it where I want? I want to invest it in the same program that congress has or the state public retirement service. The Ohio PERS. See their investments at

Social Security is bankrupt. So why can’t I contribute to this program? This is what I want to be in!!!!

I certainly hope so. Roosevelt got Social Security going because the market does exactly what we’ve seen today – regularly – and he wanted something solid for people to depend on.

Thousands and thousands of people have lost everything from even before Enron and now this.

But this is what comes from deregulation and more inportantly, putting corrupt people in positions of responsibility just because they wave a flag or claim to be “patriotic” or have shot a moose, or seem folksy.

We need to look beyond the rhetoric and demand integrity of those who we elect. Integrity means poeple who walk their talk and have developed a plan that fits their walk. these people must be open to scrutiny by us, no more secret government. That’s un-Democratic and dangerous. Remember, we elect people to government to serve US – NOT the other way around.
If we choose wrong this time, it’s going to be the Titanic going down.

YES! Privatizing social security would be put more people on welfare than you could shake a stick at….stupid, stupid, idea.