🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2381@shaman.wv.tek.com> andrew@frip.wv.tek.com writes:
>[]
>
>	"Town Hall had a discussion on SS the other night. One critic
>	said that the SS ``trust'' fund is completely gone. Empty!
>	Kaput! Drained!"
>
>It's a matter of perspective.  The surplus of FICA tax income over
>entitlement outgo has been invested in Treasury bonds.  In other words,
>"loaned" to the rest of the federal government.
>

If the social security fund is to act like a pension fund, lets compare
it to a pension fund.  Say a company like GM is required to segragate
its pension funds, to ensure that the money will be there when their workers
retire.  Would it be reasonable for GM to issue specially marked bonds that
are then bought by their pension fund as an investment?  Bonds that can't
be bought and sold by anybody except the pension fund and GM?  Of course not.  
This would simply be a transfer of funds out of the pension fund into GM's
current operating budget.  They'd never get away with it.

This is exactly what the US Government is doing today with the social security
fund.

>But what else would you do?  Say you're the fund manager and you're
>sitting on 100e9 dollars for ten years.  You can't stuff
>thousand-dollar bills into your mattress -- you have to invest the
>stuff somewhere.  Treasury bonds are the "reasonably prudent"
>investment of choice here.

The US dollar is only worth what the country's economy is worth.  It seems
to me that $1 invested in private industry will improve the economy
more than $1 invested in the government.  When I retire in the year 2025,
I'd like to be able to say:

  "because of my social security dollars, US industry is large and profitable"

To me that's a lot better than saying:

  "because of my social security dollars, the US government is large and 
   has lots of programs."

I think that the social security tax should be split into two taxes:
one to fund current obligations, and another that is saved for future
obligations.  The latter tax should not go to the government.  It should go
into an IRA designated by the individual that is taxed.

--Bob