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Because of this behavior, there is no way in the world Social Security benefits should be tied to it.

Don't fall for the propaganda. I remember Newt Gingrich 25 years ago talking about allowing workers to set aside a portion of what they were paying into SS in an investment account similar to an IRA. I remember him basically saying, "Look, the long-term performance of the stock market is 7% on average. The money will do better there than with the government." Of course, the liberals and the media and the Clinton administration cried foul and Newt's proposal went nowhere. Twenty five years ago, the S&P 500 was at 472. It closed Friday at 2,633. That's 7.1% annual return, not even including dividends which add another 2-3% in annualized total return. The market has overperformed Newt's so-called "crazy" plan.

this may be about naked short-selling in 2015, but there’s no reason to believe George & his connections aren’t still up to their same old tricks today:

6 Dec: Bloomberg: Soros Family Office Fined by Hong Kong Watchdog for Naked Short Selling
By Bei Hu
The company’s Hong Kong unit was reprimanded and fined HK$1.5 million ($192,000) for a 2015 trade involving a bonus share issue of Great Wall Motor Co., the city’s Securities and Futures Commission said in a statement on Thursday...

Soros is no longer actively involved in the firm’s operations. Most of the firm’s assets under management now belong to his Open Society Foundations, after he transferred the bulk of his wealth there.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-06/soros-family-office-fined-by-h-k-watchdog-for-naked-short-sales

>That’s 7.1% annual return, not even including dividends which add another 2-3% in annualized total return. The market has overperformed Newt’s so-called “crazy” plan.

Exactly. If SS were like everyone’s 401k plan, with the ability for people to select their own path, and necessarily including the micro-load index funds, all would be well.

At every downturn someone inevitably posts the “see, you didn’t want this risky scheme” BS meme ‘cause of course I really want 2% gain and the entire thing to fall apart before I see one cent.

Knowing corrupt DC, even if they did manage to do a privatization, it’d be partial, have dozens of brutal restrictions, and be tied to funds that happened to be managed by and provide lavish incomes to the biggest DNC and RNC contributors. … and it’d still beat what we have now.