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Now Is a Bad Time for Private Accounts
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Michael Hiltzik
Golden State

May 19 2005

One almost feels sorry for President Bush. Just as he's trying to make his "ownership society" look like something even Franklin Roosevelt would endorse, an event comes along that makes it look more like something Cal Worthington would hawk on late-night TV.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gold...,2140840.column

Actually UAL is a great example of why we should privatize SS.

It comes back to the All eggs in one basket philosophy.

UAL employees had their pentions invested in UAL. UAL runs into trouble, and they loose their pensions. Had they received that money directly from UAL at the time they could have invested it someplace else.

Now we have SS all invested in US treasuries (that congress spends the priciple earned so that no longer exists). As more corps default on their pensions, the gov. will have 2/3 of the stool people are supposed to retire on.

If people were provided their own retirement money they could invest it in multiple avenues. Across 30, 500, 1000 etc. companies. Gov. securites, etc.

But it would be their money and they could spread the risk among many entities.