The president wants to reform social security. Social security needs to be reformed or the system will collapse when the baby boomers retire. That is what I hear being debated in the congress. And that seems to make sense. What is not always explained is that how big the crisis is, or if there is a crisis at all, depends on the productivity of U.S. workers. Recently the productivity per work has been growing. When this happens it pushes off the social security doomsday. With sufficient growth in the U.S. GNP it could push off that date indefinitely. But will it?

What I also don’t hear in the debate is the risk associated with giving me the option of investing some of the money that I now put in social security. Do I think I would be better off if i had that freedom? Yes. Do I think i would have more money for retirement? Sure. But what about the people who are still sending checks to people who send them emails from Nigeria? Giving people the freedom to invest their own money also gives them the freedom to lose their own money. My fear is that the people most in need of social security are also those most at risk.