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WHAT THIS PLAN IS NOT

This is not privatization.

A pooled trust fund, invested differently — never an account with your name on it.

Nearly 1 in 4 Americans think they already have a personal Social Security account.

23% (n=2,200, ±2pp)
Nearly 1 in 4 Americans (23%) wrongly believe they already have a personal Social Security account
Source: Cato/Morning Consult, July 2025 (cato.org/blog/poll-nearly-1-4-americans-think-they-have-personal-social-security-account-3) · R-021

They never have. Social Security is a pooled promise — and under this plan, it stays one. Nothing in these twelve steps creates an account with your name on it: not a KerreyLoan, not a payroll deduction, not a birth-year contribution. Every dollar goes into the same trust fund everyone else's does. This page exists so no one can misread us.

What changes. What never changes.

What changes

  • When it’s funded — early, at or before birth, instead of waiting on each new generation’s payroll taxes.
  • Where it’s invested — a total-market index fund instead of government bonds only.
  • When withholding stops — once your own benefit is fully funded, not on a fixed schedule.

What never changes

  • The guarantee — still a lifelong, COLA-adjusted defined benefit.
  • The pool — one trust fund, professionally managed; nobody's name on an account.
  • Who bears market risk — the fund, across generations, never you alone.
  • Who picks the investments — nobody. The total market, indexed by rule.

If someone calls this plan privatization, show them this list.

Why not individual accounts?

John Bogle studied what actually happened when individuals ran their own retirement money.

13.0%/yr
The whole market, 1983–2003
Source: Bogle, Financial Analysts Journal, Jan/Feb 2005 · R-031
10.3%/yr
The average mutual fund
Source: Bogle, Financial Analysts Journal, Jan/Feb 2005 · R-031
7.9%/yr
The average fund investor
Source: Bogle, Financial Analysts Journal, Jan/Feb 2005 · R-031

Retail investing leaks returns at every step — funds trail the index, and investors trail their own funds by chasing performance. One pooled index fund at institutional scale does neither.

Costs compound the gap: indexing at scale runs about 0.02% a year, against a typical retail fund's about 1.12% (as of 2017). Privatization hands every retiree that gap, plus the fees. Pooling and indexing removes it.

What the record shows

These aren't hypothetical. Three pension funds already invest this way — pooled, arm's-length, indexed — and all three kept paying through 2008.

8.3% 10-yr net (C$714.4B assets, FY2025)
Canada's CPP fund: 8.3% a year over the last decade
Source: CPPIB FY2025 results releases (cppinvestments.com) · R-005
~8.9%/yr FY2003–FY2021
America's Railroad Retirement trust: about 8.9% a year since 2003
Source: rrb.gov/FinancialReporting/NRRIT/Background/facts · R-006
6.64% since Jan 1998 (NOK 21,268B ≈ $2T end-2025)
Norway's national fund: 6.64% a year since 1998
Source: NBIM/GPFG annual reporting (nbim.no) · R-007

What the indexing pioneers say

“A low-cost index fund is the most sensible equity investment for the great majority of investors. My mentor, Ben Graham took this position many years ago and everything I have seen since convinces me of its truth.”
— Warren Buffettas quoted by John Bogle in The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, p. 186 — from my quote collection
“The winning formula for success in investing is owning the entire stock market through an index fund, and then doing nothing. Just stay the course.”
— John BogleThe Little Book of Common Sense Investing, p. 58 — from my quote collection

Now that you know what it is

See what it's worth, or see who still disagrees.

Run your birth yearRead the objections