"Either he's lying about the risks of the stock market or else he's crazy."

You have to remember the third option. People like Dean (read: Democrats) are smarter than the commonfolk. Regular people can't be trusted to do things with their own money.

Social Security isn't an investment system.

In an investment system, you pay your money to some entity, which then uses that money to fund various profitable business activities. The benefits you get, years later, therefore represent a genuine "return" on investment -- i.e., the money you initially invested is returned to you, plus a portion of the profit derived from the use of that money.

The money you pay to SS is not used to provide capital to any business activity. It is used for immediate consumption.

Thus, the benefits one gets from SS are not a return on investment at all. The only thing that you are getting for your contributions is the right to receive, at some point in the future, contributions paid by a younger person.

Ask any liberal and they will tell you, with a straight face, since they genuinely do not see the problem with their position -- the reason that SS is "for everybody" and not just an anti-poverty program is that welfare would just wither on the vine, whereas if the middle class has a "stake," they will support it.

In other words, they KNOW that SS is a bad deal for the middle class and higher income earners, but they sell it to them as though it is good for them.

In my line of work, selling investments you know to be a bad deal for the investor will get you sued for fraud and could land you in jail.

Good luck getting Howard Dean to buy into this, the best you'll get is ignored. They know you're right, they're just demagoguing. Though I don't think that's even a word...

To be fair, Dean can afford to risk 2.5 million in the "horrible stock market" because...besides having a million bucks (probably in a large vault/swimming pool, like Scrooge McDuck), he will be compensated generously for his years of disservice to the American people by our overly-generous government pension system.

*cough*

No investment involved. . . Ponzi scheme.

*cough*

Dean's just like the hypocrites at AARP. The proposed SS revision wouldn't affect even a single one of its members, yet AARP's on TV constantly with that ridiculous why-knock-down-the-house-when you-only-need-a-minor-repair ad.

And how do they propose to provide financial security for AARP members? Why, "energize your portfolio" of course.

http://aarp.scudder.com/aipt/index.jhtml

No investment involved. . . Ponzi scheme.

Bingo. (you'll pardon the pun)

"Either he's lying about the risks of the stock market or else he's crazy"

Probably both but if forced to pick one, I'd have to go with crazy. As a bedbug.

Why is this even a surprise? The Dems in Congress have been hooked right through the bag by the NEA on the issue of school vouchers, but I'll bet the number who send their children to DC's public schools is very, very low. Dean and the other Dems don't think the stock market is a bad investment; they just think regular folk are too dumb to manage their own investments.

Of course, that doesn't change the fact that the man is as nutty as an Almond Joy factory.

Two things for which I will never forgive the Democratic party:

1. Carping at Bush at every turn over the war on terror without presenting a plan of their own.

2. Opposing SS private accounts.

No single piece of legislation would do more long term good for our country than allowing people to invest in their own retirements.

Let's do a little math, shall we?

Take a person with a modest $30, 000 per year income and allow that person to invest the full 15% of his SS contributions into the stock market (7.5% from him, 7.5% from his employer)

Assume that this poor schmuck never gets a pay raise, but the stock market gives him an 8% return over the long haul (historic average is actually 10%).

Let's say he works from the ages of 25-65. Fair enough?

Great. Let's see what he gets at retirement:

$1,356,775.03

Just remember this the next time some liberal fucker tells you it's just to damned risky to let you look after your own retirement, 'cause what he's really saying to you is "Fuck you I got mine, but you need to stay right where you are and keep working for all my pet causes."

Oh Howie...
Nobody understands you like I do.
It's not about the money, it's not about numbers or fairness or logic.

It's about peace. It's about equality.
Its about bombastic, ill-informed pronouncements and retarded facial expressions.

You people stop picking on my Howie.
He ain't much to look at, but he's good to me.

Howie doesn't have to worry about retirement funds; his father was the Dean of Dean Witter.And people do not understand how totally unfair and incompetent the SS system is; if a couple both worked for the government in any capacity, the wife can only draw on her husband's funds; we owe this little gem to the sour, vindictive bumpkin from Plains. No one ever gets the earnings they put into the system - you'l only get a small percentage of your money. This system has devolved into a bribe factory for politicians.