Why many on the right want to eliminate or privatize it has many arguments. Some are just of the mind that government should not do anything for it's people but fight wars. Others may have a more "profit minded" angle. These "free market" opponents to SS would have you purchase your retirement insurance from private companies and take the government out of the picture. Fact is that prior to 1935 this is pretty much the option you had. You could invest money on a regular basis in stocks or bonds and sock those away for your future retirement. This assumes you had any extra cash to invest which most workers of the day did not have.
As to the other fallacy in this argument I refer you back to the excerpt above regarding pensions funds. Had you made such retirement investments back in 1929, by the time you were ready to retire most or all of those investments might well have been wiped out in the Depression, leaving you with nothing. A return to such a system, when you consider what happened to many pension funds over the past couple of years, exposes the danger of reliance on a private for-profit retirement system as your only source of income in your older years.
This "privatization" scheme, for it is just that, a scheme, would boost the profits of the same insurance and banking industry we just paid a trillion dollars to bail out. Much of what they lost included private pension funds they managed then gambled away. We know those on the right think that the "free market" is the end-all and be-all of our society but they are wrong. Our society is it's people, not it's corporations and government is obligated to do the bidding of and for us, the people.
No free market solution will guarantee you get a check when you retire regardless of how much you give them to save for you. Social Security is designed to do just that. Collect your premiums then assure you that you will have an income to live out your days in later life. If you put all your eggs in a "free market" and that market collapses, your eggs are gone and you go hungry for the remainder of your life.
There is nothing to say you cannot or should not, if you can afford to, open a private retirement fund of your own to supplement your Social Security. Many people do through programs where they work or directly with a broker or banker. These people realize, however, that such investments are always at risk of an economic downturn. They still have the basics covered with their Social Security should the worst happen.
The elimination or reduction of our present, safe and functional Social Security system could spell disaster for millions of elderly and sick Americans each time our economy hits the wall. Social Security remains our first line of defense against elderly poverty that we can count on regardless of the state of our economy.
As our population ages there will be fewer entering the system over time, even though those who do will live longer so some adjustment will be necessary. However, the system is sound and will continue to protect an aging America.
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