Word: funds
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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This has happened without debate or controversy. Where are all the people who have spent the past decades shrieking that the trust fund meant Social Security was self-supporting and that therefore benefits were beyond dispute? The argument was always nonsense. The people paying in money are different from the people drawing it out, so the size of the pay-in says nothing about the justice of the payout. And where are the trust-fund zealots now? If it's immoral bordering on treasonous to raid the Social Security trust fund for other government purposes (though all that means...
...into your 401(k) account to pay current expenses, it will leave you less money to retire on. Why isn't the same true of the Social Security trust fund? First, because as a legal matter, Social Security payments are a government obligation completely unconnected to the size or existence of the trust fund. Congress may amend future benefits, and the size of the trust fund might influence its decision whether to do so. But neither the trust fund's size nor what the money is invested in is affected in any way by the government's non-Social Security...
...general government operations is especially weird because what is actually happening is the opposite. Both parties have agreed in principle that some part of the future government surplus should go to saving Social Security. In other words, general tax revenues will be poured into the Social Security trust fund and used to finance benefit checks...
...proper way to save Social Security is a mild pruning of benefits for the better-off half of the retired population, in order to keep the trust fund growing for future retirees. If a budget surplus actually does materialize, worthwhile goals like health care for the uninsured or--yes--even a tax cut ought to come before pouring more money into the trust fund. Where is the courageous politician who will say it's time to stop Social Security from raiding the government...
...keep things simple, consider a stock fund that invests primarily in telecommunications companies. In fact, a sector fund targeting any rapidly consolidating growth industry makes sense. The funds get a short-term lift from premium-priced takeovers of companies they own and do well over the long haul by owning companies that get big and dominate. The average telecom fund has trounced the average stock fund over the past three, five, 10 and 15 years, according to Lipper Analytical Services. The experience has been similarly fruitful in financial services and health care...