Re: OT: Politics [Was:Social Contract]
On 2006-04-30, Steve Lamb penned:
> Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
>
>> I honestly don't believe this. It might be different if good
>> financial practices were required in the high school curriculum,
>> but they're not. (That's an idea I've read about in a couple of
>> financial books now, and it makes a lot of sense.) Very few people
>> are all that good at investing. Particularly, because there's a
>> lack of understanding of the market, people panic when they lose
>> money, pull their money out, and then never get the benefit of the
>> upswing.
>
> But that's just it, they don't have to because Social Security
> is that bad. It's not like they have to make out like a
> railroad bandit to beat Social Security. All they have to do is
> the most basic savings to beat it. Seriously!
Right, but if they don't understand the market, it's likely they'll
not just fail to succeed, they'll lose. A lot. I've mentioned this
before, but the idea of a required course in finance (not my idea,
just one I've read) appeals to me greatly and would make this a more
viable solution.
>> Everything I've read suggests that financial experts, people who have
>> a financial education and study the market as their job, are lucky to
>> pick a winning stock 50% of the time. What makes you think that
>> someone with a full time job, child rearing responsibilities, etc is
>> going to even do that well? (And yes, you can invest in funds
>> instead, but that still requires a fair amount of attention to earn
>> enough interest to stay ahead of inflation.)
>
> Who said stocks? I said invest as they saw fit. And you're
> right, it takes a fair amount of attention to earn enough interest
> to stay ahead of inflation. Now, for the $20,000 that you and
> others never ask. Is Social Security staying ahead of inflation?
Hold up, hold up! Let's not get confused. I'm anti-social security,
I'm just not necessarily anti-safety net. I strongly suspect (the
only reason I don't say I'm absolutely positive is because I haven't
looked into it) that SS doesn't keep up with inflation.
You're right, though, that stocks wasn't necessarily a reasonable
generalization, and it kind of occured to me when I was typing that,
but I posted it anyway (bad Mo'!).
--
monique
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