Don’t mess with Social Security — people need it

Mark Trexler, Las Vegas

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011 | 2:03 a.m.

Regarding Gordon W. Moss’ Saturday letter to the editor, headlined “Opportunity missed on Social Security”:

His letter states that Social Security is bankrupt and living on borrowed money now, but this is not the truth. The Social Security Trust Fund has $1.5 trillion in IOUs that the federal government owes it.

You can thank Sens. John Ensign and Harry Reid and Reps. Dean Heller and Shelley Berkley and the other 531 members of Congress for borrowing all the money from Social Security, and now they don’t want to pay it back.

Social Security may need some tweaking, but it is alive and well. As for investing it, hindsight is always great. What would have happened if the money was entrusted to Bear Stearns to invest? Would you trust Goldman Sachs to do the right thing with your money?

With respect to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, whom Mr. Moss mentioned, they don’t have to provide Social Security to millions of seniors.

Today, many companies have only 401(k) plans for their employees. Not all of them are going great. Many companies have no retirement plans. Social Security has become the retirement fund of last resort for many people and should be left as it is.

If people want to gamble on the stock market, they are free to do so, but don’t gamble their Social Security dollars away. Everything looks great when the markets are up. When they fall, who will fall with them?