Replies to post #319585 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Kaja Bear N]

It seems that talk of privitazing comes at market tops. OK, only 1 data point :) But I didn't hear a lot about this in 2001 or 2002.

I might misunderstand the process. Current workers pay in to a pool, retired workers drain the pool. The government decided to borrow some water pouring into to pool, as it was full enough for the retired swimmers. That $$ may or may not be paid back. What if the excess was used to buy a distribution of 2-10 year (and 30 year when available) paper? The government would then need to show some discipline to balance the books without the SS smoke & mirrors. There would be a (hopefully) guaranteed return of the $$ with an extension of time until the pool started evaporating.

OTOH, it's a way to get some jobs created, administering the thing, even if it's off shore.

[skono4]

Zeev, what rate of return did you use to come up with the $600K of theoretical value of contributions. You used the maximum contributor for the 35-40 years as an example of how the system shortchanges the recipients. What happens when you do the same lifetime contribution/benefit analysis for the least of us or the average contributor?