As an investor, I've always wondered why Social Security is such a problem. What's so difficult about managing this particular Trust Fund, and why is it so different from other investment accounts that pay out a constant stream of income? The private sector does it routinely with defined benefit pension plans and fixed annuities, so what's the big deal? Is Social Security failing because it hasn't been invested soundly, or is there some other reason?

The most obvious explanation is politics, but we're running out of time for finger pointing, and Social Security is solvable in a surprisingly painless manner. It will require a whole new approach that uses old ideas and institutions in ways that most of us have pretty much given up on. As hopeless as the Bush Administration's Nicotine Patch for Social Security would have been, it pointed in the right direction. Now don't hit DELETE when I refer to "privatization", or when I mention one of my own most hated financial products, the "annuity". Both are needed to permanently fix the Social Security mess, to get it away from people who are neither managers nor investment specialists, and to make the whole system work more economically. The purpose of this article is to get you to think about it... and to elect a hero with the guts to fix it. Unfortunately, Joe DiMaggio has left the building!

Are you surprised that there is no "Social Security Trust Fund"... no investments and no Investment Managers? This is a gigantic Government designed and controlled Ponzi scheme that has worked incredibly well in spite of congressional tinkering and prohibitively high cost. There was always a tax plan for funding the benefits, but never an Investment Plan. And as difficult as it is for me to admit, no sophisticated Investment Plan is really necessary. We just need a new (reduced) contribution plan, one that isn't designed to fund every politically sensitive entitlement that compromises itself down the aisle. We need a simplified benefit structure that supplements privately funded (untaxed) retirement programs. [Healthcare just has to be a separate issue, perhaps an actual (managed) Trust Fund, and certainly something that should not be funded by private citizens until there is meaningful tort reform in this country.] Pshew! Back to the point... We can eliminate all the unnecessary bells and whistles simply by mandating personalized benefit funding. Let the politicians deal with homeland security while the private sector deals with things financial.

After the repeal of the Social Security tax and implementation of mandated Individual Retirement Plan Contributions, the Social Security bureaucracy will retain several important functions: 1) Qualifying private sector companies and licensing them to provide Social Security Retirement Income Annuities (SSRIAs). Thousands of providers will be needed, but only, fixed income experienced, profitable companies need apply. 2) Developing a computerized system for participant/provider matching... inspired randomness is essential. 3) Proactive monitoring of compliance with the minimal rules, installation of fraud detection systems, and investigation of all violations by providers, participants, and retirees, 4) Keeping the plan sacred, simple, and principally unchanged by future legislation. The plan must be kept: simple and profitable for providers; painless and visible to participants; timely and comprehensible to retirees.

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