montanamaven

America and the world are struggling in economic turmoil. Social Security began as a humane effort to support the millions of older Americans who had lost their life savings during the Great Depression. The sad fact is that the program doesn-t pay for itself and is paid out of general revenues. The baby boomer population has strained the system due to the large numbers of those drawing on it. Social Security is not a pension fund and payments are made for reasons other than retirement.

In recent years proposals have been made to option out of Social Security by providing access to private investment accounts. Thankfully this move never caught on, the recent stock market fluctuations and banking crisis of 2007-9 made that apparent. The bank bail out also drew attention to lax enforcement of financial regulations that led to massive profits and losses in the financial services industry that would have been a disaster for those who had these accounts instead of a regular payment for Social Security.

The financial services industry is a complex one and the terminology, fast pace and trust that mist be placed in the financial adviser make it a critical one for those who invest their retirement funds in market securities. It is also saturated with fraud and fraud opportunities. Social Security is backed by the Government, for better or for worse.

Entitlements have multiplied and increased, and some reasonable accounting and examination is necessary. But so many persons depend on a form of Social Security that any elimination of the fund, suspension of payments or switching to a stock market investment account system with the current breed of sharks that manage it would be a disaster. Perhaps the question we should ask is not can America afford to keep Social Security but can we afford not to ?