Social Security
"Even an absolutely safe U.S. Treasury Bond or Note rate of return of 5% would significantly beat the current rate of return on Social Security benefits which is only about 1½%. "
"An additional extreme negative associated with the Social Security pension is that the benefits die with the retiree whereas with self-funded private retirement plans there will be a death benefit equal to the remaining account balance in the private plan. "
Imagine if a mother and father were able to leave their privatized portion of SS to their children or favorite charity.
"Another extraordinary fact pertaining to this issue, and one that is relatively unknown by most Americans,
is the fact that many federal and state employees already have fully-privatized retirement benefits. In other words, many federal and state employees have the equivalent of their entire Social Security tax go into an individual account plan that can earn a real market rate of return like in a Section 401(k) and the other private retirement plans discussed below."