Subject: RE: Cato Institute - Please read BRAVO!!!
While the plan offered by the Cato institute may sound appealing to the younger worker who would have ample time to accumulate retirement funds through long term market investment, their plan leaves much in the way of gaps, the solution of which, are not clearly defined. For instance they suggest that those wishing to turn to a privatization plan would have the option of investing some 10 percent of their FICA contributions in a private plan while 2.6% would be maintained within the present plan. It should be obvious to all that those who would elect a private plan woulfd be those who stand to gain the most, ie, the younger workers with the longest time before retirement. In addition, where would the funds come from to fund this 10% shortfall to SS? They are not very clear on this very important omission and suggest that the transition would come from tax increases or floating more bonds (great for our national debt!). They also suggest tax cuts. Where would these necessarily hefty tax cuts come from?
The complete elimination of SS is not a feasible alternative and like it or not we are stuck with SS whether we like it or not. We can, however, make SS a more palitable system for those presently on retirement and also for those who will be it's future recipients.
Mac
