The parallels between the funding of an individual pension plan and a paygo social security system are presented. In each plan, the total expected value of benefits can exceed the total expected value of contributions. For the individual pre-funded plan this is true because of the discount factor, δ, representing investment income earnings. For the paygo social security system, the analogous “discount” factor is denoted r, the total of real growth rates of the labour force and real productivity gains per worker, that is, real growth in wealth production. The paper then presents arguments to show that a fully-funded social security scheme is no more secure economically than a paygo scheme. Both schemes rely on the ability of the economy to create and transfer wealth. That is, security for social security does not lie in privatization. The paper also reviews the Reform Party's proposal for a “Super RRSP” replacement for social security and analyses its advantages and disadvantages.
