What If in 1978 Instead Of Introducing 401(K) Accounts They Doubled Social Security Taxes And The New Half Went Towards A Government Ran Pension Account Specifically For The Person?
What If in 1978 Instead Of Introducing 401(K) Accounts They Doubled Social Security Taxes And The New Half Went Towards A Government Ran Pension Account Specifically For The Person?
r/whatif
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The govt would still screw it up. It’s the biggest pondicherry scheme in the world.
Like CPP in canada. Its basically a tax, i wish we could opt out and put that money into our own pension.
The government would dip into and waste as much as they could.
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Or go the way of Norway were ever citizen gets a pension ?
The government would say treasury bonds are the best pension investments, use it to buy bonds, and then spend the money they made selling the bonds.
What happens to that pension if the worker never lives long enough to qualify?
The stock market was terrible in the 1970s due to two major recessions. The DJIA broke 1000 briefly in 1966 and did not reach that value again until 1982, Not many would want to invest their retirement in stocks then.
If the money was held in Treasury Securities (like the Social Security surplus), the investment returns would have been very low.
If the government were, instead, to invest it as we do our 401(k) money, the government would have been in the position of picking winners and losers.
Personally, I like the idea of making my own investment choices.
401k isn’t bad. It’s pretty darned good with a match. SS is also good. I like having both. 401k doesn’t help those who can’t work. Having one, I was able to pay off bad debt so I only owe myself.
If I lose my job I’ll owe taxes rather than tank my credit. There are some very good points to the 401k.
Having the government manage it would turn bad, since THEY have bad debt and can’t be trusted.