Americans must ensure their own comfort

Consider this: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the original Social Security Act in 1935. Now I’m a blue collar worker who, with the sheer luck of having showed up enough times and sticking to my “scholarly habits,” – spelling not being my best – was granted a B average upon gradation (that was before they wanted you to really learn in school.)

So a little Googling tells me that in 1935 the unemployment rate was 20 percent and a first class stamp cost 3 cents. This tells me that things have changed. I checked on a calculator and what do you know, if a small percentage of my Social Security was just earmarked to a private investment, it would ensure that only my cat would have to eat Fancy Feast in my old age!

Now, I know many of us at age 70 will be gambling at the Indian casinos with money we earn from saying “Welcome to Wal-Mart,” but don’t lose sleep because there are those who earned an “A” average in high school, graduated from law school, and now serve at the will of the people. From Washington D.C., they have assured me they know how to invest my money better than I do. Now this may or not be a crisis, but it is a time for us, as free Americans, to ensure our own comfort in our old age.

Mike Boggess

Marysville