Monique Y. Mudama wrote: > On 2006-04-30, Steve Lamb penned: > >> No, not might. Most people. Some might choose bad investments. >> But by and large it is extremely difficult to do worse than >> Social Security. I think it's so bad that putting the money >> in a simple 3% interest savings account offered by any bank >> yields more in the end. > > > Even though I just ripped into you a few posts ago, you do have a > point here. It would be interesting if social security could be > altered so that (this is just off the top of my head here, so I'm sure > it's not by any means perfect, but maybe the glimmering of an idea): > > 1) By default, everyone pays into SS > > 2) Instead of the current system, every person has an individual SS > account, from which their own retirement would later be drawn > > 3) That account would invest in CDs or some other extremely low-risk > setup. Perhaps it could work like a bank instead, with an interest rate > based on balance (I'll admit I don't know enough about how banks work to > be sure that could work). > > 4) There would be a non-trivial, optional exam. If one passed the exam, > one could choose what to do with the money that would typically be given > to SS: leave it there, invest it, spend it on wine, women and song. > Whatever. But the exam would have to be good enough to ensure that the > taker is financially well-educated, and taking the exam would have to be > expensive enough to be a deterrent (shouldn't be a problem since it > would have to cover the costs of formulating the exam, etc). > > The main trouble I see with such an approach is that someone could be > financially brilliant in a way not yet commonly accepted, and thereby > flunk the test. But I imagine someone like that could "fake it" > through the exam anyway by knowing the "right" answers. > I like your idea, except for point 4. In fact, why does the government need to be involved in it at all? Just to mess it up? -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sanchez http://familiasanchez.net/~roberto
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