Again...the Invisible Hand

[mediamogul]

They have a far lower chance of getting your money if you are in control of it than if the government is in control of it, look at how much of their action was contingent upon the backing of the taxpayer via subsidies, guarantees and limited liabilities. If that percent of income that you're paying to social security is cash in your hand then the only way that Wallstreet is going to get it is if you give it to them. If people took some responsibility for their own retirement there would be LESS centralisation of power, financial and otherwise.

there would also be a much bigger gap in classes as well, further removing the middle class from the picture. agree? it sounds like wealth distribution isn't part of your mantra and that's ok, but i'm just trying to clarify what your position is.

there are not very many people who would do any kind of well for themselves, left to invest their own money in whatever they choose. a little direction is quite a help to some who haven't the means to know how to grow their money. and the rich would always have the option of not investing a dime, which would again help not a soul in the middle or lower class. granted, they want to pinch every dime they can, so i'm sure they would invest, but it'd still all be going to sach, so private or not, sachs wins.

One of the most important things a government does is to provide for the welfare of it's citizens. The New Deal was created directly in response to the overwhelming needs generated by the Great Depression. They are socialized programs in the sense that everyone pays into them and they are available to anyone who needs them. They are viable is due to the fact that everyone pays into them and continues to pay into them even when they are not using them. The small government, de-regulated business approach was attempted during the early 1900s pre New Deal and was a disaster for most of the population. Contrast that with the period of great prosperity following WWII when taxes were highest and much of the infrastructure of the US was built. Privatize social security and the banks will flip a profit and then run the program into the ground or make it like any other unrealistic privatized retirement account which only works for the vast majority of people because it is supplemented by Medicare and Social Security. The Libertarian view of this matter didn't work then and doesn't work now. Government is not only useful but necessary.