“Social Security is the ideal issue.  It’s one of many, according to polls, where both parties are out of step with voters.  After seeing their savings, pension plans, and housing values destroyed, people are frightened about their retirement security. They don’t hear anybody in Washington offering to protect their benefits. “   Huffington Post Politics January 23, 2012 Read the rest of this entry »

Some presidential candidates and many in congress favor the privatization of Social Security through the phased in inclusion of self-directed retirement accounts. Such accounts would allow younger workers to direct a portion of their employment taxes into mutual funds managed by private money management firms.

Those who support this idea contend that in doing so younger workers today will realize greater retirement benefits down the road through investment in stocks and bonds. They argue that workers deserve the right to limited control over how their funds are invested. My question is…Why would anyone want limited control, when we have full control now? Read the rest of this entry »

This is the question that was posed in a recent article on DailyFinance.com. The makes some interesting observations in this article and draws the conclusion that means testing would be counter-productive…the cost of administering such test would out-weigh the savings from benefits not paid.

He also points out that while the high earners pay more in taxes and receive more in benefits; however, the increase in benefits is disproportionate to the increase in taxes paid. The increase in the monthly benefits of high income earners over the monthly benefits of the lower income groups is much less (as a percentage) then the amount of taxes high income earners pay over the lower income groups. And, high income earners often lose 30% of their Social Security benefits to taxation Read the rest of this entry »