As published in Matt Miller Online.

Before Social Security, the social security of each individual was on his/her own hands: no one was prevented from saving and investing on their own, during their productive years, to self-secure the remaining of their lives. Social Security was created to provide everyone a safety net, whether the individuals are good at saving and investing, or not.

The prospect (and actuality) of having seniors die homeless, sick and unable to feed themselves was too real and too great to ignore.At the beginning, social security was private. It did not work for many, so Social Security was enacted. The wellbeing and even survival of so many is way too important to tag it to the upturns and downturns of Wall Street or the financial savvy of each individual.

To ‘privatize’ all or part of it today is to go full circle and ignore the lessons of our history.It is also a way for Government to avoid the consequences of their irresponsible handling of the Social Security funds, by passing on the problem to the individuals: “After all, if you don’t know how to invest your own social security money to obtain the return you need to carry on, it becomes your problem, not the Government’s.”By privatizing any part of Social Security, Government is no longer responsible to provide a reasonable income to the retirees; it becomes ‘their own problem’.

This is a smart way for Washington to get this ‘hot potato’ out of their hands and dodge their responsibility. It also provides a windfall the Stock Brokers, Bankers and Financial Advisors, all of which will benefit from it regardless of the outcome for the retirees.Pablo Vitaver