Don't let them take your money

Nonprofit groups are spending millions on new television advertisements attacking President Bush's Social Security plan. What these groups fail to realize is their donors stand to benefit the most from personal investment.

The labor-backed group ProtectYourCheck.org and Americans United to Protect Social Security said they will try to raise a combined $35 million for the ads. ProtectYourCheck gets most of its funding from unions and blue-collar workers susceptible to the groups' scare tactics.

"The Social Security you earned," the ad says, "isn't (the administration's) to take."

Let's look at who gives and who takes. Every hour you work, the government takes 12.5 percent to put into a big pool for Social Security and other entitlement programs. Bush's plan gives workers 4 percentage points back (almost a third) to invest.

Politicians in the House and Senate arguing against reform will make $162,100 in 2005. Does anyone think they don't invest a portion of that for their retirement? They'd be crazy not to.

So why keep the poor from doing the same? Aren't these the people that ProtectYourCheck claims to represent?

The situation is worse for minorities. A black male born in 1971 has an average life span of 60.5 years, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Just enough to pay into the system his whole life and die before he gets any of it back. Bush's plan allows him to set aside money to invest and pass on the created wealth to his children. Under the current system, his widow gets some compensation and the government takes the rest.

What about the risk of stocks? News flash: we're already in trouble, personal accounts or not, if the market crashes. Investment accounts do not create a new problem in that area. Critics are right about the lack of risk in the current system, though: It's absolutely guaranteed to go bankrupt.

Everyone, not just the rich, should be able to invest and create wealth rather than rely on politicians and worker-retiree ratios to determine benefit levels. You work for it, you earn it. It isn't the government's to take.

Drew Bland is a political science, policy studies and economics major. You can e-mail him at DDBLAND@SYR.EDU