The cp creates OWNERSHIP --- allows potential retirees to build their savings with stock and bond investments

(Wall Street Journal, “Steve Moore in the Wall Street Journal: Counter Inequality With Private Social Security Accounts,” pg online @ https://www.freedomworks.org/op-ed/steve-moore-wall-street-journal-counter-inequality-private-social-security-accounts/ //um-ef)

Fortunately, a simple solution exists: Help workers become owners and grow their investment income. Mr. Booker was exactly right when he said recently: “A paycheck will help you get by, but wealth in America is what lets you get ahead.” Nothing creates wealth like ownership, and the best way to expand ownership is to broaden participation in the stock and bond markets. With Americans’ budgets already tight, funds for new investment should be freed up from the vast sums they send to Washington each month. Congress should amend the Federal Insurance Contributions Act to give every worker the option to shift up to 10% of his paycheck away from Social Security and into a new, personal “Own America Account.” Each individually owned account would be invested in a low-fee index fund of roughly two-thirds stocks and one-third bonds, and would mature at the federal retirement age. This way, every working American—from the minimum-wage waiter to the truck driver to the store manager—would become a genuine owner, building real wealth for himself and his family with each paycheck. Investment in the private market would deliver far better retirement savings than the current government-mandated structure. We estimate that over the past 40 years, Social Security’s real annual return for a typical middle-class worker has been about 1% a year. And given the program’s growing deficits, returns may be even lower or even negative for today’s young workers. In contrast, stocks returned more than 6% annually in the same 40-year period. Over a career of saving, the difference amounts to a literal lifetime’s worth of additional income. A recent study commissioned by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity found that the average American who retired in 2016 after 40 to 45 years of work could have saved more than $1 million in balanced index accounts, and many middle-class families could have accumulated closer to $2 million.