IRAs & 401(k)s can invest. Social Security should invest too. ASAP!
SPOILER ALERT!
YOU would be MUCH better off if Supercharged Social Security had invested for YOU at your birth.
YOU wouldn’t have expensive but weak benefits & no-growth government bonds victimized by inflation. YOU’d have super-cheap yet strong benefits from a professionally-managed, high-growth stock-market index (a fund that owns a slice of every company in the market) held ultra-long term in an Supercharged Social Security Trust Fund.
But that was “The Road Not Taken.”
Stock-market history shows fixing system flaws with Supercharged Social Security could GUARANTEE great future benefits! But with no fix, you can expect big benefit cuts around 2033. And don’t say we didn’t warn you!
Even then, payroll taxes would still cover about 81 cents of every scheduled dollar — a cut, not a stop.
Prefer to check the math first? Run your birth month →
With Supercharged Social Security, we could have been soaring.
Supercharged Social Security — a very brief introduction
Our message? Simple: Dysfunctional legacy (today’s) Social Security has us plodding toward a 2030s benefit cut. (Even then, about 81 cents of every scheduled dollar would still be paid — a cut, not a stop.) At your birth, Supercharged Social Security could have promised YOU’d be SOARING toward poverty-free retirement. And for some of us, SOARING toward “Social Security millionaire” status. This website will show you how Supercharged Social Security could keep those AMAZING promises.
The vision
Amend HOW? Supercharged Social Security development began in 1996. In 2000, John Bogle described an Supercharged Social Security-like plan that could fix Social Security’s flaws.
A “government-sponsored retirement/investment fund that would be managed by an independent Social Security Retirement Board made up of ‘appointed figures of unquestioned integrity and financial acumen.’ The board would select the stock holdings of the fund, which would track the performance of the entire stock market. And, naturally, (Social Security) would be charged razor-thin management fees.... If the market returns 10%, (its beneficiaries) will get 10%.’”
What could YOU expect from Supercharged Social Security?
You could expect exactly what COULD have happened if Supercharged Social Security had begun in 1935. But that was “The Road Not Taken.” Younger workers and newborn Americans (1935 and after) would have become “instant capitalists,” (owners of a slice of American business from birth) on the road to well-above-poverty-level retirement income. Some even becoming “Social Security millionaires”! Older workers would have had legacy system benefits.
History now shows us NON-PRIVATIZED (no individual accounts) ultra-long-term Supercharged Social Security stock-market investment would have been virtually riskless! Begun in 1935, FICA (the Social Security tax taken out of every paycheck) and elder poverty would have shrunk steadily, vanishing completely by the late 1990s! Trillions of dollars from FICA phase-out would have poured into Wall Street’s IRAs, 401(k)s, the wider economy, and YOUR wallet. Politicians, fear not. Wall Street’s donations would have increased, not shrunk. And YOU would have gotten far more out of Social Security than you paid in.
But that was “The Road Not Taken.”
Let’s get on that road NOW! Supercharged Social Security would pay off in four ways:
- A win for YOU and/or your familystronger benefits, funded at birth for ALL newborns
- A win for Your representativesa fix voters could actually benefit from
- A win for Wall Streetwith FICA phase-out, trillions flowing in
- A win for Our economygrowth in savings, investment & consumption
A win-win-win-win.
An example from history shows what powers Supercharged Social Security
What makes our plan “Supercharged”? See what it could have done for retired U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.
Not a “numbers person”? The following table shows the enormous power of Supercharged Social Security – “the Road Not Taken.”
How this was estimated. The figures in Table 1 are my. They come from the SBBI® S&P 500 total-return series, which prices each month at its last trading day. This site’s calculator uses Robert Shiller’s public data instead, which prices each month as the average of its daily closes. On that data the same $250 grows to $276,314 by August 1997 — about 4% less than his $287,338 — and $1 grows to $1,105 instead of $1,149. Neither is wrong; the two series simply measure the month differently. For a birth month at a market bottom, like March 1938, the gap can reach 25%. Run Ron’s birth month yourself → · How this site labels estimates →
The fix
A pooled Supercharged Social Security Trust Fund, invested the wisest way, accumulating assets for YOU!
The Supercharged Social Security plan summarized: it will fund benefits early, inside a new Supercharged Social Security Trust Fund, invest in the whole stock market at low index-fund cost, manage it professionally, with no privatized or individually managed accounts. And no risk of a benefit cut like the legacy system may foist on us around 2033. (Even then, about 81 cents of every scheduled dollar would still be paid — a cut, not a stop.)
What Supercharged Social Security IS:
- Investment held in a pooled Supercharged Social Security trust fund
- YOUR money professionally managed
- A slice of the total U.S. stock market working for YOU
- Still a defined benefit plan (a promised monthly check for life) — still your pension.
What Supercharged Social Security is NOT:
- Not weak benefits at exorbitant cost
- Not privatization
- Not individually managed accounts
- Not stock-picking by amateurs
- No cuts to YOUR benefits.
Prove it to yourself
What could an at-birth $1.00 have done for 12-time NBA All Star Larry Bird, or actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, by age 62?
On Shiller’s public data the same three months give $350, $1,743 and $739 — see the note under Table 1.
A hypothetical illustration of mathematical principles — not a projection of your benefit.
Wall Street’s best-kept secret
The “Doubling Principle” is simple: a broad stock-market index held “forever” will double “forever.”
Dividend compounding accelerates the doubling. Warren Buffett says wise investors buy & hold “forever.” Want to know why?
With dividends reinvested
$1.06 million
what $1.00 became, 1871 to 2026
Without them
$1,700
the same dollar, same 155 years
Since 1871, $1.00 in an index like today’s S&P 500, with dividends reinvested, would have grown to about $1.06 million. Without the dividends, the same $1.00 would be worth only about $1,700. Supercharged Social Security has no pension-fund precedent. Had Social Security’s founders looked, YOUR retirement benefits could have been strong & cheap compared to what they gave you.
The hard questions
The three hardest questions we get — answered, not dodged.
Won’t politicians raid it?
Fair question — Congress’s record is poor. So recognizing that, we designed Supercharged Social Security arm’s-length (politically independent, like the Federal Reserve), governed by a board like the one John Bogle suggested.
What about a repeat of 2007–09?
(On this site’s data: 455-fold.)
Isn’t Supercharged Social Security privatization?
No. Social Security would manage your retirement account. Not YOU. It’s that simple. If Supercharged Social Security let YOU control management of your Social Security account, that would be privatization. But that’s not how we designed it.
It’s long past time to take “The Road Not Taken.”
Could YOU have been a “Social Security millionaire”? See my own tables.
No donations asked. No accounts. Just an argument and the math.
An American program, funded the American way — by the people it belongs to.