re: SS - everybody knows you only put money in the stock market

[donsu]

that you can afford to lose.

why isn't this known truism talked about by the DEMs?

[ArkDem]

1. That's why I refuse to have a 401K!

[donsu]

2. yes, and all these pension plans that dabble in the market - just

asking for trouble.

[Warpy]

5. Trouble is here

The tag end of NPR was on my truck radio this morning, and one factoid was that pension plans across the board are underfunded, and the average of underfunding is 50%!

That's a lot of pension money that simply isn't going to be there, especially when companies that were merged into megacorporations are cut loose to go bankrupt, thus making the problems disappear.

Employee contributions into pension funds have been used as play money by corporations for decades, even after legislation passed to make them seem portable.

THIS is why anyone over 50 realizes what a fucking scam anything the GOP intends for social security is, and why we are so angry about it. We're the people who got most of their pension contributions ripped off over the years when they weren't portable. We have nothing left BUT social security.

[BlueEyedSon]

4. My 401k became a 201k. nt

[HockeyMom]

7. Me too

Plus my grandparents experience with the stock market crash of 29. My grandfather "invested" nearly everything he had in the market. When it crashed, he was about penniless. Grandma didn't like the idea of the stock market. Hell, she didn't even like BANKS. She would set aside money, gold coins, etc., and hide it under floorboards, behind drawers, etc.

If not for Grandma and her "stash", they would have been out on the street.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Ordinary people already plow substantial sums of their

401K retirement money into the stock market via mutual fund investments. The value of those investments fluctuate wildly.

[Al-CIAda]

6. "why isn't this known truism talked about by the DEMs?"

Because they are pathetic and SUCK. They can't fight their way out of a wet paper bag.