re: #496 jcm

Over the long term, a working career, savings are rarely completely lost. Unless you’ve put everything in one place. If you have a properly diversified account you have principal that’s not at risk and the closer to retirement the more principal you move to low risk investments and accounts.

SS was originally a safety net for just that type thing, then it became an entitlement and many people came to rely on it for retirement.

Of course there would have to an insurance program against catastrophic loss.

The system we have now, what the government takes form you telling you it’s for your retirement they STEAL and use it to buy votes with earmarks.

All you say is true, BUT the average taxpayer is not a great financial manager (or we would not have all these happy credit card companies!). SS was a safety net and entitlement, meant to support a few people who were lucky enough to live to 65, for the two or three years on average they would still live. Arguably, at its inception it was not the Ponzi scheme that it later became due to improved life expectancy and inflation.

I agree, the biggest problem is government stealing from the pot, but of course, there is no pot, no lockbox.

I like to think that what you are doing, when you put money into SS, is buying shares in the biggest diversified mutual fund on the planet, the entire revenue stream of the US economy, public and private companies.