Re: Response to Moderator

[Jan Fergus <jsf1@lehigh.edu>]

I'd just like to agree with Anna Rappoport's questions and many of H.
Hartmann's answers; what primarily dismays me in skimming through the
entries in this debate is to see how many are arguing that private
accounts are best for women.  I wholly disagree, for the same reasons
that others cite: most women simply will not be able to contribute
enough to such schemes.  I am one of the lucky women who have saved
enough to, most likely, afford early retirement; those of us in such
positions need social security much less than others who have been less
privileged and should collect less. Social security taxes, in my view,
should aim at offering a minimum decent standard of living in retirement
for all--but particularly the underprivileged elderly, a group that is
disproportinately female; those taxes should not produce yet another
system, privatized or not, whereby the rich in this country get richer
(especially stockbrokers, who will be the main beneficiaries of any
privatization scheme).  Sincerely, Jan Fergus