OK, here it goes…my first post. Since this blog is centered on the up and coming generation that can actually make a change I thought that my inaugural address so to speak should be about a problem that we can actually fix, Social Security. Here’s the problem, Social Security is shot to hell, or at least it’s going to be underfunded and inept by the time that we, the youngsters, will be wanting those fancy checks in the mail. As it sits today, I will put more money into that program than I will see when I’m old. Same goes for every Reagan baby in this country. So if you are banking, no pun intended, on using the government as the sole means for living at the ripe old age I would suggest moving to England or China.

The biggest obstacle about social security reform is the extreme party politics that plague us in almost every issue today. The leftists don’t want to see the system reformed; at least that’s what they say publically. When the Bush administration came out with the best reform package we have seen since the program’s inception, the automatic responds from the Dems leadership was to oppose and to oppose hard. Although the plan was far from perfect it was a step in the right direction. Almost 80 percent of the country agrees that the social security system is a problem and more than 90 percent say the system needs reform in the next few years. But the democrats are not responsive to the will of the people, they are only responsive to party agendas. If any issue needs a bipartisan plan this is it. Gone are the days of sitting in a room and not leaving until a solution was figured out for a given problem. The word COMPROMISE is out of the question in today’s politics and that is exactly what we need for reform of the social security system.

If we look closely at the problems with the system we can group them into three major ones. The first being that the social security fund is not being managed. The world’s biggest retirement account is not being invested. Anybody else find that a little perplexing? On top of that the funds are being lent out to other agencies. My money is supposed to be for me and my retirement, not for some road building project in the middle of nowhere.

Second, is there is no illusion of privatizing the system. Many people want retirement out of the government hands. While that can be a problem and might leave millions of people poor and old there needs to be the illusion of management which as problem number one states is absent from today’s system.

Lastly there is no choice on where my money goes. If I don’t want that money to be lent out to other agencies, I have no say in that matter. If anything I would want it to just sit in that giant vat collecting dust until I need it because then there is a little chance that it still might be there. But again, we the people, have no say in the matter because of those pesky people in Washington.

So the moment you call have been waiting for…my solution. This might be a radical one because it is a compromise. I can already hear the left going well it’s just not going to work. Well hear me out. So we have all this money with no management, no illusion of management and no choice for the people. So what we should do is create five groups. Lets call them A, B, C, D, and E. These groups will range in alphabetical order from most aggressive to least. Every year each person can specify which fund they want their money to go into. Young people will gravitate to the A and B group and older people wanting more security can drop into the D and E group. C group can be reserved for old people that still think they are young. A group can be the fund that invests in small cap business and emerging markets and E can be the old system of just sitting there and doing nothing but looking good. And of course B can be large established markets and companies and D can be t-bill and the like. C is in the middle. This solves all three problems.

First, now my money instead of sitting in the social security siphon will be managed and utilized. Finally a retirement account that is an actual retirement account. People who want the risk and return can opt for the crazy A group and people that want the old days back can just put it in E. This would essentially close off the social security fund from other agencies while making me some money. It’s a win-win.

Secondly now I have a choice of what happens to my money. Instead of hearing about how I’m not going to have any money left when I’m old and saying, “Where did I go wrong?”, I can pinpoint that exact moment where I made that wrong decision. At least it was me that made it not some bureaucrat that didn’t even know my name. Same goes in the opposite direction. When group A gets 15% return I can jump for joy and dream about retiring on an island in the Bahamas, I’m probably going to end up in Florida, same difference.

Now to appease the left. These funds will still be governmentally managed. The President or the Fed chair can nominate a fund manager for each account and the Senate can affirm that decision as they see fit. So instead of privatizing the system we give the allusion of privatizing it but sneakily it’s still in governmental control. Boom, all three problems solved. The right is happy and the left is too, hard to come by these days.

It really is sad that people don’t see the problems that social security brings until it’s to late. Hopefully now we can come together and fix this problem before the kids of this country have to saddle up and are forced to fix it. Now if only somebody would elect me to congress…