Why shouldn we privatize Social Security?
Also not an econ type, but… My understanding of the way social security works is that the payments you and I make are actually what supply the money to make payments to today’s retirees — that money is how the government writes Social Security checks today. The theory being that when we retire in 40 years, our grandchildren’s social security taxes will pay for our benefits, and on down the line. The harm (again, as I understand it, I’m just a dumb journalist) is that if we stop paying a percentage of our social security taxes into the system, the current generation of retirees is left with the bill. Or, more likely, the government is left with trying to figure out how to continue paying social security benefits, to the tune of, give or take, about $2 trillion. Dollars. The other danger, which is more relevant to you and I personally (other than what do we do with our grandparents when they can’t afford food and medicine), has to do with accountability for the money that we take out
