[Mr. Jeeves]

I'm not usually amenable to additional government regulation, but I think that the whole Enron debacle shows that a significant portion of America needs protecting from themselves.

Which is why Social Security privatization will never fly. A huge percentage of people are simply too dumb to manage their own money.

[sitetest]

Dear Mr. Jeeves,

"Which is why Social Security privatization will never fly. A huge percentage of people are simply too dumb to manage their own money."

I disagree.

The federal Thrift Savings Program offers an approximate model of a program that permits workers to accumulate real financial assets for retirement, while putting into place sufficient safeguards to keep them from blowing all their money.

From what I gather, federal workers are restricted to basic mutual fund-like investment options. About the worst damage federal workers typically do to themselves is to invest too conservatively - many put nearly all their money into government bond funds.

However, for young workers, even this will provide a far greater return than Social Security.

If Social Security were to be privatized, it would be appropriate to restrict workers to investing in index funds only (at least until they acquired signficant assets and showed some grasp of investing know-how).


sitetest

[jpl]

Which is why Social Security privatization will never fly. A huge percentage of people are simply too dumb to manage their own money.

Part of the problem is that economics and money management education is all but nonexistent in the American school system today. At times, I wonder if that's deliberate.