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The President has appointed a 16-member Social Security Commission to examine social security and report back to him and Congress. Though purportedly "bipartisan," the commission is stacked with privatization advocates. They will report back a number of ways to privatize Social Security. Bush's final proposal to privatize Social Security takes benefits away from the current plan. To calculate how you would be affected by the Bush plan, visit Social INsecurity Calculator.

Arguments for:

• There is little confidence that the Social Security system can survive the baby boom generation.
• When compared to recent rates of return for the stock market, the Social Security investment returns seem low.
• The ability to make individual investment decisions has great appeal, especially for workers who have grown accustomed to using brokers, investment clubs, and internet trading.

Arguments against:

• Social Security has never missed a payment. It is backed not by the market, not by government insurance, but by "The full faith and credit of the United States Government." The real threat to Social Security is not financial. The system will always be adjusted to ensure both solvency and sustainability. The real threat to the system is political.
• Social Security is not just a retirement program. It is a disability program and a life insurance program. Privatization would also affect these programs without countervailing protections.
• Social Security is not supposed to be (and was never designed to be) the only retirement program for workers. It was always designed to be a part of the mix of retirement dollars. It is but one leg of the three-legged stool: a pension, Social Security, and whatever else one is able to save and invest.
• The recent downturn in the stock market illustrates the risk of investing retirement savings on Wall Street. When your pension is invested in the market, and you invest your savings in the market would you want Social Security invested in the market too?
• Many of the privatization proposals (setting aside 2 percent for privately managed accounts, allowing younger workers to "opt out," investing Social Security funds in the market) will force a reduction in income for the Social Security Trust Fund, necessitating benefit cuts, raising the retirement age, or increasing contributions for workers or worse yet, all three.

Privatization of Social Security would be criminal. After cutting taxes so that no additional dollars could be used to shore up the system, there is no reason to attempt to loot the Social Security system just to put more dollars into Wall Street. Social Security should remain a program to supplement the pensions of workers it's not the only answer for retirement income but it's backed by "The full faith and credit of the United States Government." Nothing in the market can beat that for security.