Between private retirement and SS, I am able to live decently. I did not save or invest well enough to reach the critical mass that the guy on the radio used to talk about and without SS, I would be on hard times.

Government enforced savings is more than just a good idea, it is an absolute necessity. I just can't get past the fact that the dollars saved and invested in a conservative private investment fund would have provided a far greater return. I have never seen a projection that shows otherwise.

SS was a source of revenue for many years but it is now an almost hopeless burden. We would not have this problem if the savings had really been in a lock box and left to grow without the Govt. dipping into the till. Maybe we would still have some problems with low income savers, but the fact remains that we would have a larger pool to draw on.

It seems that most liberals believe that somehow citizens would find a way to deplete their private investment fund before retirement. With strong Govt, oversight, I don't see how that could have happened.

Somebody please explain to me why what we have would not be better under a private investment plan. I believe that the government wanted full access to SS revenue and that is the reason private investment was not considered.