>>>James, thank you for the information about rolling over the trust fund and liquidating it with public debt. (i.e., people would voluntarily buy the bonds that make up the trust fund, right?)
No thanks necessary Mark. Yes indeed Mark, people will be voluntarily scooping up those bonds. If you look at the projected public debt as a percent of GNP then as opposed to now, you will see that it will probably be much lower. And to the extent that there is some kind of SS reform that includes individuals investing their own fund, many will prefer those 'super-safe gov't bonds', as opposed too investing it all in the stock market.
>>>However, you did confirm the essential truth that the trust fund is a debt, not an asset. Many people do not realize that.
Not quite Mark. You, like many others, don't see the full picture. The bonds in the trust fund (TF) are ASSETS to the TF. The bonds are a liability to the general fund which borrowed the money. Exactly the way a bond works in the private market: Liability to the borrower and asset to the lender!
