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Stocks Plummet on Continuing Worries
The Dow slides 513 - the worst one-day drop since 2008 - as investors panic over persistent economic problems.
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Social Security
Can I rely on my Social Security income? Shouldn’t we just privatize it?
Many people imagine that they’d have more money if they could ditch Social Security. “Just give me my contribution and my employer’s, and I could invest for a higher income,” they say.
I doubt it.
To begin with, you probably wouldn’t invest it all. You’d spend some. Some would be thrown away on bad investments. You might be crushed in a bear market (think 2008). Some might invest too conservatively. In the end, you’d probably fail to build the enormous sum needed to pay yourself a Social Security-equivalent income that would keep up with the inflation rate for the rest of your life.
And if you failed, what then? Even if you could amass this money, many of your fellow citizens couldn’t. You might be OK, but a large group of seniors would be broke — just as they were before Social Security began. Welfare payments would soar.
Without Social Security, you’d also lose the survivor benefits paid to your spouse and children if you die. Those checks keep many struggling young families afloat. You’d also lose disability payments if you became so ill or badly injured that you couldn’t work.
Despite all the scare stories you read, Social Security isn’t in serious trouble. Everyone knows what it’s going to take to keep the system going: a small additional payroll tax plus trimming future benefits in a modest way. Eventually it will get done. Compulsory Social Security protects part of everyone’s old-age income from the hazards of life, and we should be grateful for it. Without it, large numbers of our elderly would live poor.
![Book](https://web.archive.org/web/20110804220100im_/http://i.bnet.com/images/201001/bio-book-jquinn.jpg)
Excerpted from Making the Most of Your Money Now by Jane Bryant Quinn
Copyright 1991, 1997, 2009, by Berrybrook Publishing, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc
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Couple plead guilty to forcing teen into labor
TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington state couple accused of forcing an 18-year-old to serve as their unpaid personal servant have pleaded guilty to document servitude.Federal prosecutors say 29-year-old Edk Kenit and 31-year-old Choimina Lukas, of Longview, recruited the victim from their homeland...
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Debt Deal: What Changes Might Be in Store for Social Security?
The recent debt compromise calls for a bi-partisan committee to make recommendations to Congress by Thanksgiving for reducing entitlements, including Social Security and Medicare. Let's look at recent proposals to change Social Security, to see what this bi-partisan committee might recommend, and...
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Budget battle moves on to super committee
WASHINGTON — The budget battle is not over. Many of the most nettlesome questions have been left for a new bipartisan super committee of 12 lawmakers whose task will be to find at least $1.2 trillion more in deficit cuts spread over the next decade.The six Democratic and six Republican...
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Questions and answers about the debt-deficit deal
WASHINGTON — An explanation, in questions and answers, of key features in the debt-reduction plan, how it would work and possible impacts on programs:Q. Why is the raising of the debt limit important?A. The federal government now must borrow about 40 cents for every dollar it spends. Without...
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Highlights of budget and debt limit pact
President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders have reached an agreement on a plan to pair an increase in the nation's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit with spending cuts and to create a special committee to recommend bigger savings for a vote later this year. Highlights:DEBT LIMIT—The...
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Highlights of budget and debt limit pact
President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders have reached an agreement on a plan to pair an increase in the nation's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit with spending cuts and to create a special committee to recommend bigger savings for a vote later this year. Highlights:DEBT LIMIT—The...
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Illinois governor signs college scholarship bill
CHICAGO — Illinois made it easier for illegal immigrants to pay for college when Gov. Pat Quinn signed a law Monday creating a privately funded college scholarship program."We say to all the people of our country and our state, we want everybody in and nobody left out," Quinn, a Democrat,...
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The Debt Deal: Winners and Losers
Washington struck a debt-ceiling deal that could also deliver $2.4 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years. What we didn't get is any movement on economic stimulus, despite Friday's news that the pace of economic growth slowed in the first half of the year. by Carla Fried
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Entitlement Spending: the Problem the Debt Deal Won't Fix
Whatever deal is agreed in Washington in the next few days won’t meaningfully address entitlement spending. As Robert Samuelson points out in a Washington Post column, the nation’s economy and public finances will remain at risk until it is. by Conrad de Aenlle
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Dow average plunges 513, worst drop since 2008
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