Add-On SS private accounts vs. IRA (with a higher cap)

What's the difference between the two?

but if Bush were really interested in getting people to save, he would be proposing something like that.

It seems obvious to me that his real goal is to destroy social security, not to make retirement safer.

A tax forcing you to contribute to your private account. In fact, the Bush privatization scheme, with the diversion from SS to a private account, also forces contribution to a private account, in that nobody can just say, I would rather spend the money now.

Moreover, IRA is deductible from income taxes. I don't think the add-on or Bush privatization would be, since the money paid in payroll tax still counts as income.

The average American can't tell the difference?
Hello America. The difference is this.
Take away benefits. Reduce pay. And you have that much less to invest.

As BU$HCo and the brain dead Reaganites of the capitalistic me only cult unite to make the common man believe that the only way to success is through personal responsiblity.....

Shhhh.....do you hear the money being sucked to the top??????

Less and less money will be at the bottom to invest. Having "personal responsibility" will ultimately mean taking a strong dose of prozac when you suddently realize you have nothing left to invest.

We will all learn, someday circa 50 years from now....that the only way free enterprise actually works is with a vibrant working middle class, empowered to succeed, with the ultimate carrot being a true stake and true ownership in the profits of society.

There are two vital mechanisms which make this all happen and which eclipse anything to do with social security.

#1 - A very intelligent progressive tax system which maintains a constant governor against capitalistic self-destruction...
#2 - Just the right dose of socialism (oh my God, defined as successful working government programs) to keep the public secure, healthy, and inspired.