Obama endorses Social Security expansion

[Sbane]

They need to raise the age limits and get rid of the stupid ceiling and drop the percentage taken.  Is there any tax (other than maybe cig taxes) that affect the poor so much more than the rich?

Interesting proposal. I would very much be in favor of that. FICA is a very regressive tax. I still do wish ateast a portion of it, especially the employee contribution portion, should be given to the employee to invest themselves. There should be rules like no investing in individual stocks, mandated Bonds/Stocks ratios at a certain age etc. I think I could make more money just putting that in an index fund tracking the S&P 500 than I would get back as social security benefits.

[Sbane]

They need to raise the age limits and get rid of the stupid ceiling and drop the percentage taken.  Is there any tax (other than maybe cig taxes) that affect the poor so much more than the rich?

Interesting proposal. I would very much be in favor of that. FICA is a very regressive tax. I still do wish ateast a portion of it, especially the employee contribution portion, should be given to the employee to invest themselves. There should be rules like no investing in individual stocks, mandated Bonds/Stocks ratios at a certain age etc. I think I could make more money just putting that in an index fund tracking the S&P 500 than I would get back as social security benefits.

The idea of taxing earned income at a substantially higher rate than unearned income seems quite insane to me. If we want to turn SS into a pure social safety net for the old impecunious (a problematical idea but that is anther discussion), fund it out of general tax revenues.

Privatizing SS is the most insane idea of all. If somebody blows there retirement nest egg with bad investments, we have a moral hazard problem. Most individuals can't invest their way out of a paper bag, and the average rate of return by folks is about 2% annualized less than the market annualized return. That is a huge percentage, ending up being a huge amount of money, compounded over the decades.

Isn't it great, not having to chat about that massive ahole Trump for once? 

I basically believe Social Security should just be a program to help the poor in old age, as opposed to some sort of pension system. I would be ok with some sort of mandatory retirement account though. Make it more like a 401k as opposed to what Social Security is today. If Social Security taxes are my money, I want at least some control over it. Of course, I am also not the type of person who will try to bet on individual stocks with my retirement money. I understand many people aren't like that. And yes, it is nice to not talk about Trump all the time.

[Sbane]

They need to raise the age limits and get rid of the stupid ceiling and drop the percentage taken.  Is there any tax (other than maybe cig taxes) that affect the poor so much more than the rich?

Interesting proposal. I would very much be in favor of that. FICA is a very regressive tax. I still do wish ateast a portion of it, especially the employee contribution portion, should be given to the employee to invest themselves. There should be rules like no investing in individual stocks, mandated Bonds/Stocks ratios at a certain age etc. I think I could make more money just putting that in an index fund tracking the S&P 500 than I would get back as social security benefits.

The problem with that is when the bottom falls out of the market as in 08-09 and the individuals retiring at that point are screwed. They need to keep working (if physically and professionally able) until the market recovers, which could take years. That happened with many people relying on Index Funds and the like during the Great Recession; now imagine that problem accelerated to covering the ENTIRE retiring population nationwide.

When talking about a multi-generational institution, stability and conservative growth is paramount over aiming towards even moderate growth.

If you are planning to retire within 5-10 years, your portfolio should be much more conservative compared to someone like me who has almost 40 years remaining till retirement. I understand many people don't get this and that is a shame. That's why we can't have nice things.