Id love to be able to manage the money Ive contributed to SS like I do my IRA. Put it all in some low cost Vanguard mutual funds and Im pretty sure Id come out ahead in the long run. But the people who dont save anything for retirement and rely almost solely on SS for their retirement would be the same ones who put their entire SS account into a few internet stocks and lose a big percentage of it. They would then go crying to their Democrat congressman that they didnt have anything to live on and it was someone elses fault. So I recognize it would be difficult to make work.

Nothing the government gives you is free.