---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 10:59:17 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> To: fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu Subject: How much you lose under Social Security -- socialsecurity.org I'm over at the National Press Club now, just came from a Cato Institute press conference unveiling their socialsecurity.org web site. It lets you calculate your retirement income and compare how much you'd get from the Federal government's Social Security "fund" compared with a private system like a 401(k). And it's fun to play with. Let's say I was born in 1970 and make $30,000 a year (BTW, I wasn't and don't). Assuming I retire at 67 and inflation is 3 percent, Social Security would give me $1,293 a month after I retire. And that's if you assume Social Security won't go belly-up, a hard position to maintain since its own trustees say it's underfunded by 25 to 33 percent. Compare that to a stock fund, which yields so much more: $8,635 a month. I can't think of a better argument to privatize Social Security and move to a system like an IRA or 401(k), a solution the Cato folks have advocated for years. Before the big government folks out there criticize Cato's calculator for being biased, let me point out KPMG Peat Marwick did all calculations and programming. -Declan