Harry Gross: Social Security: Not broke, not looted

Dear Harry: I'm writing to you because I'm hoping that you can open people's eyes to this massive lie: Social Security is broke. It has been looted by our government since the 1960s. And from what I hear and read, it's about $2.5 trillion, at least, that the government owes us. No one will talk about this. All they talk about is cutting benefits to our seniors and raising the retirement age. How do we force the government to pay back what they stole and keep their greedy hands off this money? This money belongs to the people and not the government!

What Harry says: Here we go again. It certainly is a lie that Social Security is broke. However, it was not "looted" by anyone. If you were asked for the safest investment in the world, what would you answer? Stocks? Corporate bonds? Chinese or European bonds? My answer is U.S. bonds. When the money comes into the SS fund, it is put into the very safest investment: U.S. bonds. To that extent, the government gets to use the money put into SS by employers and employees. Interest on the bonds goes back into the fund. When these bonds come due, the money is invested once more in U.S. bonds. There has been a lot of talk in the last couple of decades about "privatizing" the SS system and allowing individuals to put "their" funds into stocks, etc. If we had followed these recommendations, individuals would have taken one helluva hit with the Bush market crash. Of the plans offered to shore up the trust fund, I like the one that does not have a cap on the amount of income that is taxed for fund contributions.

Write Harry Gross c/o the Daily News, 400 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19130. Harry urges all his readers to give blood - contact the American Red Cross at 800-Red Cross.