Math knows no ideology: the left gets realism on Social Security

According to this article (written by a representative of the liberal think tank “Third Way,”) Even some so-called “progressives” are waking up to the fact that Social Security is in dire need of reform.

This is great news. After all, as bad as the economy has been recently, if you’d invested in the S&P 500 at the beginning of 2006 (back when George W. Bush was talking about “privatizing” Social Security and before the stock market bust), you’d have still made some money in the stock market. That’s pretty good compared to the paltry rate of return provided by Social Security which doesn’t invest your money, rather robs tomorrow’s Peter to pay today’s Paul (as it has from the very beginning).

Of course, long-term and diversified investing is the way to go, so most investors would have made a great return for themselves for decades and would not have all their retirement money in stocks as they near retirement. But, as long as the government operates Social Security as a Ponzi Scheme, the system will continue to go further in debt and young people will continue to lose out on a reasonable return on their retirement dollars.