Summary
When he won re-election in 2004, President Bush asserted that he had won a mandate from the voters and earned political capital. A short time later, Mr. Bush spent that capital on a proposal to privatize Social Security. The idea gained little traction with the public and even less with Congress, and the president, after hawking the plan around the country for months, finally dropped it. With the Dow Jones stock index dropping 778 points on Monday, the question "What if?" comes to mind.
If Americans had been able to put the equivalent amount or some percentage of their Social Security deductions into the stock market, many - especially those within a few years of retirement - could be facing financial disaster today. Supporters of the privatization argue that such a plan would allow shrewd, responsible investors to make more money for their retirements through the stock market. But the other side of the coin is that for every big winner, there likely would be big losers.See the full content of this document
Extract
Retirement Roulette
Those who do not know history - or have rewritten it - must be reminded that Depression-era programs li...
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