I got my social security statement last week. It says that I pay 6.2% and my employer pays 6.2% for a total of 12.4% of my income. I can draw when I'm 67. That means I'll pay in for 51 years and will draw for two years if I live to be an average age. Sounds like a rip-off to me. Do you know how much money I would have if I could invest 12.4% for 51 years? Money that could be left to my family.

You're confusing taxes with investments/savings. SS it a tax, to provide a guaranteed benefit to seniors and the disabled.

Do you know how much money I would have if I could invest 12.4% for 51 years?

Wow, you can average 12.4% over 51 years? What's your secret? EDIT: Oh, 12.4% of your income. Still, you're wrong. Carry on.

Privatization of SS is a deal breaker issue for me.

The term "Social Security" actually is used instead of ODIP. It's an INSURANCE program not an investment plan. The one thing privatizers can't explain is how to make the transition from a pay as you go insurance program to an investment program, mainly because it just won't work.

I have wondered why republicans hate SS so much and I huess it's that "employer contribution" that has gotten so many of them in trouble for not making in their businesses. My other thought is that since SS is, frankly, a very successful and efficient program that is actually quite solvent, Republicans just can't stand to see such a huge pile of money that they can't steal.

Or, like Medicare, they can't stand to see government programs that actually work.

Personally, I grow weary hearing about the supposed character flaws of the political parties when a discussion about Social Security arises. This should not be a partisan issue. It should be a discussion about the validity, or invalidity, of creating private investment accounts with Social Security funds. It should be a discussion about how to keep the system solvent when at some point, the money going out will exceed the money going in. But it always seems to become a partisan argument.

Personally, I'm not counting on the availability of SS when I reach retirement age. While I would prefer to have the 12.4% go directly into an investment grade account, I acknowledge that I am in the minority on that position, and we're likely stuck with the current system for the foreseeable future.

if I could invest 12.4% for 51 years

What did the government do with it? Electrified the Tennessee Valley, established an international medical and scientific campus, sent probes to Uranus.

Don't you have any pride in your country?

Privatizing SS was a cornerstone of pre-9/11 Bush's major goal to have an "ownership society." With record foreclosures, record debt, record bankruptcies, a stagnant stock market, etc., that's working out real well.

But given how well he, his buddies, and companies like Halliburton and Blackwater are doing, I guess Bush would say...Mission Accomplished!

How about giving Americans the right to choose to divert a portion of their social security tax dollars to a private account? If it's offered as a choice, is it acceptable?

Randy, social security may be working now, but not for long. The Boomers retirement and demands on the system will take care of that. What those in Washington do now will have little effect on older folks. They can patch things up for a while and move the problem on down the time line. But, the long term question of whether anything I (and other people below 50) have paid in (and will pay in) will be there when I retire is the question.

How about giving Americans the right to choose to divert a portion of their social security tax dollars to a private account? If it's offered as a choice, is it acceptable?

No and no. This was a deal worked out long ago, a very good deal for society as a whole, and you can't change the rules to suit your specific benefit while screwing those younger than you and those who need insurance worse than you.

Why do you wingers imagine some potential SS shortfall long in the future as an immediate crisis, while your attitude about global warming, the biggest crisis ever facing human civilization, is eh--so what's a little 'warming'?--we'll worry about it later if it gets really bad enough?

Your priorities, judgment if you will, stink(s).