Hi, Ed.
I DID read the article, and it doesn't address this issue at all. And naivity is strongly correlated with both education and wealth, though unfortunately there are many who are both educated and wealthy who are also naive -- if there weren't there wouldn't be so many rich financial con artists! But the main thing that's needed is investment knowledge, and to some extent experience. Those who have never had money to invest in their lives, and therefore have never had the need to be knowledgeable about investment, are EXTREMELY unlikely to be anything but lambs for the slaughter if suddenly allowed to make their own investment decisions. Furthermore, standard investment industry pratice is to charge lower fees to those with larger accounts. At a minimum, all privatized SS investment accounts should be charged the minimum fees, on the premise that IN THE AGGREGATE those accounts will more than exceed the minimum amount. Otherwise, my account will be charged a much lower fee than that of they guy who sells me my hamburger, and that's not fair. Odd that the party that objects to the graduated income tax being unfair doesn't seem to think that size-based fees and commissions are unfair. The only difference in two is that graduated income taxes hurt the rich and powerful, while graduated fee schedules help them. Just another example of how the republican Party is really only concerned about helping the top-end folks and corporations, while using clever slogans and ad campaigns to argue that black is white. Hmmm -- guess I better not take that logic further, lest I violate the TOS!
-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
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