Six Arguments for Private Accounts

1. Americans should be free to choose how they will plan for their own retirement

• In America, a worker should not be forced into a government-run retirement plan - particularly when that retirement plan is going broke and is a bad deal
• Personal accounts are voluntary - giving people more freedom and control over their own retirement plans.

2. Social Security is about to go broke

• There are so many baby boomers retiring that the money being paid into Social Security by today's workers will not be enough to pay for all of their retirement benefits. By law, retirees won't get all the benefits they were promised, no matter how long they paid into Social Security.
• With personal accounts retirees will get more benefits than they would have gotten under Social Security.

3. Social Security is a bad deal

• Right now the "rate of return" on Social Security is around 2%; most of today's younger workers can expect a negative rate of return - in other words, their money would be better off in a mattress than in Social Security.
• The average annual rate of return on stocks is 7.56%. Even in the worst 20 year period in our history (1929-1948) the rate of return on stocks was 3.36%.

4. Social Security is unfair to low income workers and African Americans

• Workers with lower incomes and African Americans tend not to live as long as workers with higher incomes and non-African Americans. Cashing in on Social Security is totally dependent on how long you live. When you die, it doesn't matter how long you have been paying into Social Security, all of your contributions disappear.
• With personal accounts workers' contributions are saved by workers in accounts that they own. When they die their accounts go to their loved ones. Personal accounts will go a long way toward ending the wealth gap because the children of poorer Americans will be able to inherit their parents' personal accounts.

5. Workers have no rights to their Social Security money

• No matter how long or how much a worker pays into Social Security, Congress can at anytime change the benefits that workers will get at retirement and the worker can't do anything about it.
• Under personal accounts, the assets in the personal account belong to the worker and the government cannot touch it - ever.

6. Personal accounts allow everyone to benefit from the amazing American economy

• Everyone wants to participate in the American dream of earning and saving money for a comfortable retirement and for leaving something for their kids - personal accounts is the American dream.

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