I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. Yesterday I mentioned a new social security calculator from the NCPA. It's online at teamncpathinktank.org. The NCPA calculator estimates what you'll get back from social security based on the typical earnings history of a person your age and sex in your occupation, adjusted for the effects of inflation. About 500 occupations are included.
It shows how your returns would increase if you'd have invested privately, based on your personal information, and compares it to social security's payoff. Hint: You get clobbered under the current system. Take one example: A 35 year-old male construction worker living the normal lifespan gets a real rate of return from social security of only 1.2 percent. Compare that with even the most conservative estimates for private investment, based on decades of performance, and you'll begin to see why privatizing's crucial.
Again, the calculator's at teamncpathinktank.org. There's a companion booklet available from the NCPA at (972) 386-6272 or at www.ncpathinktank.org. It's your future.
Those are my ideas, and at the NCPA we know ideas can change the world. I'm Pete du Pont. Next time, what the polls really say.