My first thoughts when I heard someone take a see-I-told-you-so attitude toward privatizing Social Security in terms of the financial market meltdown was that current retirees and retirees to come in the next year wouldn’t have been affected.  The privatization plan was 1) VOLUNTARY and 2) limited to those with retirement at least 15 years away.  Most people would not opt to join in a system they didn’t understand and would opt for the government options.  So they would be protected.

Those of us who would have opted for privatization would be JUMPING at the chance to be able to cautiously put some money into this market.  I see a market ripe with bargains that are only down because of the pressure from the rest of the market and not for any business model reasons.  If I had some extra, it would be going in.  So I would be happy to be able to sink some of that 13% of my paycheck into the market now.