To call Bush’s FICA investment scheme hare-brained would be to give it too much credit for having been thought through at all. In no way would it have resulted in the government’s liability being reduced, and would simply been one more massive bail out in 2008-2009.
We solve the entitlement problem in a few steps.
First, Medicare and indigent senior Medicaid inflation must be zeroed out on a per-capita basis and eventually become negative on a per-capita basis such that total outlays can stabilize. The senior citizen health care system must be made MUCH, MUCH cheaper.
Second, disability must go through a 1996-style reform. Despite what (might have been) the best of intentions, SSI and SSDI have become a welfare program with all of the ills and negative incentives of the worst of welfare systems.
Third, social security retirement income should have a reform of the cost-of-living calculator.
I am an instructor in Medical Laboratory Technology and Biology at our local community college and I know NOTHING about Economics. Your ideas sound great, but my point was that he did suggest doing something about the problem. The thing that appealed to me about his idea is that there are many people who think that there is an account in DC with their name on it that will be there no matter what which would be laughable if it wasn’t such a crime. A private investment account would be something that did have a person’s name on it which could be passed on to surviving family members. Despite what happened in 2008, the stock market over time has continued to go up, and, as long as risky investments are avoided, one could expect to come out ahead - unlike my children who are in their 30’s. They are forced to pay FICA taxes, but I firmly believe they will never see a penny of benefits.