| Social Insecurity Social Security is quite important. There are tons of old people in this country and we can only expect more. I feel we have two options; maintain Social Security or open up some tar pits. The choice is obvious because tar smells bad. Both candidates agree that Social Security should be preserved but they both have their little spins on how to do that. This is a hot campaign issue because there is a large group of people who want Social Security to continue and some that don�t like it at all. The group that has the largest number of voters in it would be for Social Security. Perhaps that is why they both are so intent on saving it. George W. Bush loves the stock market. He wants to let the people invest some of their Social Security money in the market. The government would not be involved in the investing. He feels it should be left in the hands of the people. There are some problems with this. I feel it kind of defeats the purpose of social security. If you want the people to have control of the money just say it and then give it to them straight out. I don�t see the logic of this at all. I�m also concerned about who this helps and who it will hurt. Someone who is going to be mostly dependant on Social Security in the future will experience no increase in money with this program. They don�t have the time or the resources to invest in the stock market. So what will happen is people with money and financial prowess will make money. This seems fine until you consider that the rich will be benefiting from money that the poor are restricted from using as they please. Also this will unleash even more ignorant investors on the market. Internet trading is bad enough but if all of these people start investing they will throw the whole system out of whack (at least this is I what I hear� I personally have no idea.) This could lead to an unstable stock market and then it could crash and everyone would lose their money and then they would be old and not have enough to money to live on because they lost some of their social security money. This is not unfounded because day traders are spooked much more easily and really could make the stock market unstable after time. I may be making an extreme prediction but the stock market could crash on it�s own and the same thing could happen. I like to call this idea Social Insecurity (hence the title.) Al Gore wants people to save more money. He plans to encourage this with incentives such as matching some of the money saved and tax breaks on that money. He also wants to make it easier for businesses to offer pensions. He doesn�t seem to have any stock market ideas so that is a plus over Bush. I think Al sees that Social Security is a safety net and should not be jeopardized. He seems to be much more cautious with people�s savings than George W. Once Again I choose Al Gore. I really wonder why people are even voting for George Bush. Ralph Nader(who I am voting for even though I am keeping this essay series to the two main candidates) is so right about how this reflects on Al Gore. Why can�t Al beat this man? I also feel it reflects poorly on the nation. Al Gore isn�t the most appealing guy but he is more appealing than Bush. This whole Social Security in the stock market is so unsettling. If people lose their money in the stock market they will still need it when they get old. They aren�t putting up their vacation money or their expendable income. These people would be putting up their future grocery money. All the stock market advice that I have ever seen(notice I say seen, not read, because I get all my financial information on cnbc because, as we all know, reading is very hard and confusing) states that one should never invest what they can�t afford to lose. This is money that is needed. I guarantee that if people do lose their money we will have to assist them in the future and wasn�t the whole point of Social Security to provide for that assistance. George is grossly overestimating the financial stability of the stock market and the nation. You would think that these candidates wouldn�t do that so much. They have lived to see a lot of fluctuation in the economy. Perhaps since they grew up in well off families they don�t have a grasp on the average person. I will admit that Al Gore does seem to realize that there are poor people out there. I honestly believe George either doesn�t get the idea if Social Security or he really doesn�t want to preserve Social Security. If he doesn�t want to preserve it that is a justified opinion. There are arguments both for and against Social Security but what George is doing is kind of twisted. He seems to want to �sort of� have social security. You can�t have your cake and eat it too (though I�ve always wondered what good is cake if you can�t eat it� but I digress.) |