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Pros And Cons Of Privatization Of Social Security

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Conversely, the current state of the social security administration has raised several concerns and led to various arguments for the privatization of social security. Several of the arguments for privatization include opportunity for greater returns, freedom to choose individual investments, reducing government oversight, inheritance of benefits, and keeping the funds from being raided by Congress or the President. While there are several reasonable points, the overall argument for social security privatization is not sufficiently strong. One of the primary arguments for the privatization of social security is that stocks and bonds earn a higher return. From these higher returns, social security would remain solvent and individuals would …show more content…

However, the social security administration is highly efficient in what they do, and the total administrative costs for the social security administration are only 0.7% of their revenue. On the other hand, the average American pays 1% in fees on a 401(k), and while a difference of 0.3% does not seem like a significant amount, this easily grows to tens of thousands of dollars when compounded over the course of an individual’s career. In addition to higher fees, the possibility of losing money to fraud is significantly higher in financial markets. It is estimated that over $2.6 billion in retirement savings is lost annually to fraud, and this number would certainly rise of more people were holding their retirement savings in financial markets. Looking beyond the fees associated with the programs, it cannot reasonably be inferred that a privatized system would have less government oversight. In a privatized system, there would need to be a network that tracks contributions, balances, and ensure that people are makings sound investments. Such a network would be capital and labor intensive, especially when magnified to the scale of the retirement age …show more content…

In recent years, allegations have been made that politicians take money from the social security trust fund in order to finance their special pet projects. This image of shady, backroom dealings that diverts funding from its intended source does certainly strike an image in the mind of the public, but this is entirely a fanciful claim. What is often referred to as raiding social security is purely an investment technique employed by the social security administration. In years when there is a surplus of payroll taxes over disbursements, the social security administration will look for vehicles to invest the surplus funds. The preferred method of investment I with special government bonds that are contractually obligated to pay interest and principal payments at certain dates. So while these funds were later spent by the government, it was not a deliberate action of the government to take money from the social security administration, the social security administration just happened to be an investor that was interested in the bonds that were being

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