(Separate)Social Security accounts would limit (worker investment) control

So do we have 2001 commission idea that a medium earner would lose about 23% of his or her regular benefit if 2% private accounts are chosen (as per current SS chief actuary, Stephen Goss, estsimate), or do we go with Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla. and toss 95% of what is in the separate account back into the gov treasuring at retirement? - Choices - love those choices.

And as to making folks into investors, "Major proposals, including those from the president's own commission, to revamp Social Security with private investment accounts include provisions that place big limits on how much money individuals can invest, where it can be invested, what they can do with it when they retire and how much they can pass on to heirs."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-25-soc-sec-usat_x.htm

Social Security accounts would limit control
By William M. Welch, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — President Bush is selling his idea to transform Social Security with private investment accounts as part of a new "ownership society" for Americans. The accounts, Vice President Cheney says, would be "a retirement fund they control themselves and can call their own." But the reality would produce a lot less individual control than Bush and Cheney suggest.

Major proposals, including those from the president's own commission,to revamp Social Security with private investment accounts include provisions that place big limits on how much money individuals can invest, where it can be invested, what they can do with it when they retire and how much they can pass on to heirs.

Bush has not offered a specific plan to reshape Social Security, his top domestic priority, but he has said workers should be able to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into investment accounts. "By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear and make our society more prosperous and just and equal," he said in his second inaugural address last week.

The White House has signaled that it's considering a reduction in benefits for future retirees below promised levels by adopting an inflation-based formula for setting initial benefits at retirement. The benefits are now set by a formula based on wage growth. A recent e-mail by a White House political aide, Peter Wehner, promoted the idea. The 2004 Economic Report of the President also discussed such a proposal.

A less-noticed element in most major Social Security proposals, including all three recommended by Bush's study commission in 2001, would impose another reduction for those who choose investment accounts. Retirees would not be allowed to receive both their full Social Security benefit and the entire proceeds of their private accounts. <snip>