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So, the financially illiterate Froma Harrop wants to write about Social Security and the stock market, two things she apparently knows nothing about. She crows that she is glad people were 'saved' from having market based accounts for portions of their SS, over a timeframe when the market has advanced more than 25%. Yes, save us from the evils of making money! Regarding her assertion that there is a SS trust fund, that 'fund' consists of IOU's written by the government to the government. A T-Bill is an asset if held by an individual (the gov't owes the individual), but when the government holds T-Bills it owes itself. It is the same as saying I have a million dollars because I wrote myself an IOU saying I owe myself a million dollars. Those T-Bills have to be paid off with future tax money, the money that bought them was spent long ago. Her assertion that SS is 'boring but reliable' is laughable. It relies on future politicians and taxpayers maintaining the status quo, and paying ever escalating taxes. When the baby boomers start retiring, the system will break, with more retiress than workers paying into the system. Moving to market based accounts that belonged to individuals and offered real returns was the only way to save the system. Unfortunately, ignorant people like Harrop helped to defeat that proposal and doom future generations to a looming financial disaster.

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It is unfortunate that the majority of people including Ms. Harrop don't understand what is happening with the SS surpluses that will will be gone in the next 8 years. She says she is glad that the money is invested Government guaranteed securities. She does not understand the difference between investing in a debt security or issueing a debt obligation. If you wanted to save for your own retirement and lets say you needed to save $10,000 a year to do so. The problem is I don't make enough to cover my expenses and save for my retirement so I am going to issue a $10,000 promissary note to my retirement fund each year. After 20 years with accrued interest my retirement account has grown to $300,000. Is the IOU that has now reached $300,000 an asset that can be sold to use for my retirement or a worthless promise? Our Gov't has spent the 2 trillion in surpluses in the general fund and replaced them by issuing debt, not purchasing debt. The gov't has perpetrated a fraud of the highest order on it's citizens by taking retirement monies and spending them on other projects and issuing a worthless IOU.

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Nice try Ms. Biggov't. You say that the naysayers to social security reform prevailed, and they are glad. Why should they be glad? All they did was make the inevitable more so. Why can you NOT do the math? Either we do nothing to address the social security trainwreck and we ALL pay the price(our kids pay the ultimate price), or we do something to make it viable for the long run and run the risk that a few can't manage their own basket of mutual funds. Period. Simple. Was that too hard for you liberals to wrap your mind around.? This is a mathamatical cercainty, not an argument. Personally, I'd rather risk losing a few between the cracks than having all of us go over the cliff together. That way, we can help those who fell between the cracks. By the way, try this fact on for size... the average rate of return for almost any actively managed Mutual fund over the last 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, & 75 years have been around 10% per year! Look it up. In fact, I'll bet you own these very mutual funds inside your 401k, as do most Americans. And yes, that does include the lastest January correction and is net of all fees. It is especially true if this money is held in a tax sheltered plan, like a Roth or Traditional IRA. (or a 401k) (or a social security retirement account) Please check your facts next time, if that isn't too much of an inconveinience for you.