The percentage I used were not "above inflation," they were just straight return. I assume the "partial privatization plan" redirects some of the government held principle to the stock market. It should change NOTHING as far as payout, and only affect the timing of when the system is no longer self-sustaining (assuming any given demographic projection).
What I still don't have a handle on is the difference between the bond payout (for talking purposes, I decide to do it on my own and just take the interest), and the SS payout given the identical wage history.
SS is all about transferring money as it should be. It is primarily an insurance system. It also cross subsidizes to lower income workers, as it should, and Bush wants to do more of that, and about that he is right.
Then advocate changing the nature of the discussion to suit that model. It's welfare for the downtrodden. Roll the tax into general income tax, and start spreading the wealth around. Why the "retirement fund" charade? It costs money to maintain.
It is around the same in the aggregate, but goes in many different directions, including disability payments, so the straight payout in SS retirement benefits is lower, in the aggregate. Since the system subsidizes lower wage workers, what is in play at 40K I don't know. That is probably around the tipping point, so probably not much. It does help to have a non working wife. That is a nice SS subsidy. The non working wife gets half the benefit after the working spouse dies.
And yes, I favor in a perfect world a straight old age welfarist pension plan, for the safety net part of the system. Private pension plans should be the add on.