Thoughts on Social Security

Social Security: The President has submitted a solution to the Social Security dillema. I say dillema, because in my opinion everyone agrees there is a problem... no one agrees about how to pay for the solution. The President's solution has been to individualize social security accounts so that individuals can invest them in the stock market IF THEY CHOOSE. There is a choice involved. This would involve borrowing money from the debt, in order to supply the investment capital that these individuals would become responsible for. Presumably these investments would be in the form of Mutual Funds of some kind. Concerns of the opposition are two-fold. 1. Is the interest paid on debt funds (the debt gets bigger not smaller in this solution,) a good return on the benefit these investors realize. Some may lose their social security in its entiretly due to bad investments if Mutual Funds are NOT the solution. If Mutual Funds ARE the solution, who is qualified to run such a large fund? A mutual fund may not maximize profit, but rarely loses money. Would these Mutual funds dominate compitition in the economy? Will the investment fund be invested in the US, or will it be invested overseas? This can be made subject to law if necessary. 2. This solution obviously costs money in the form of interest on the debt. If we do NOT implement THIS solution, a future solution is also going to cost money. Explaining the calculus of the problem: This solution costs money now, but less money in the future. Other solutions are expected to cost less money now, but more money in the future. There should be a Calculus that can be used to determine at what time the cost of each solution is the best, and action should not be delayed BEYOND that point in time when the benefit for either solution cannot exceed the benefit from the other.