Private Accounts a Bust in Nebraska

[dweller]

by Dave Zweifel

President Bush early this month staged a series of "town hall" meetings around the country to push his scheme to
"fix" Social Security.

The meetings, obviously, were stacked with Bush partisans who talked glowingly of how well off future generations
will be with privatized (oh, I forgot, "personal") accounts.

In meetings from Fargo, N.D., to Blue Bell, Pa., Bush insisted that his plan would mean more money in retirement
for American workers than the current system provides.

Too bad he didn't visit Nebraska. He would have been hard-pressed to stack a meeting there.

more here at CommonDreams

dp

[DeaconBlues]

1. Ummmmmm

He did actually visit Nebraska (Omaha) for one of his fake townhall meetings to tout his social security boondogle.

[TheFarseer]

2. Didn't know that

I've lost my ass in the stock and commodity markets before. It's by no means a sure thing. People think mutual funds are safe but that's not the case. I had a mutual fund drop from $1000 to $700 in no time at all and it just sat there for about a year before I decided to cash it out to help with a large purchase. Traditional mutual funds are just a group of stocks. I think people get confussed and think mutual funds can only go up as if it were a money market fund or something.

[displacedtexan]

3. My teacher retirement was in mutual funds (Enron heavy)...

I lost $140K almost overnight... which I'll never get back.

[tomkms]

4. Even money market accounts

...are not perfectly safe. I've lost money when the FED raised the interest rates, reducing the value of my funds. I've got an IRA that's been like a yo-yo, and I'd like to get it into something safer, but I can't find anything except an FDIC insured bank account. But my financially knowledgeable friends say the dollar is going to tank soon because of the debt!

Decisions, decisions.

[newyawker99]

5. Hi tomkms!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: