From: Bill Lucy 

In article , nomail{at}hotmail.com says...

> > Either way, I believe it's appropriate to infer from statements the
> > President has made what might be offered.
>
> Yes, it is fair to infer what "might" be offered, but it
seems to me that
> I'm seeing inference of what "will" be offered from those
opposed to change.
> Indeed, it seems to be a case of constructing an outline from a predisposed
> conclusion and treating what "may" be included as absolute supporting
> evidence for that foregone conclusion:

Then it seems to me that it's a reader's issue, I.e. I tend to read most
things as "might" rather than "will" when talking of
future events. This is especially true when reading about Presidential
statements, whether that President is Reagan, Bush, Clinton...


> A more useful approach would be:
>
> I. Considerations of SocSec Reform
>     A) Possible ramifications of, let us say, an annuity
>         1) If your personal savings are to be used at retirement to purchase
> an annuity, when you die your funds will stop, just as they do now in SocSec
>             a) You can however, unlike SocSec, select different options for
> pay out based on your personal situation, opting for a smaller check, but
> indicating continuing payments or benefits to another
>     B) If no annuity purchase is required,
>         1) you may opt to buy one anyway, or
>         2)you may set up an actuarially derived withdrawal schedule
>             a) and indicate a beneficiary of your choice for the balance
> upon your death
>     C) Personal Account Performance Considerations
>         1) If your investments perform at (x)% your payments will be the
> same as they were before
>         2) If they outperform (x)% your payments will be higher
>         3) A discussion of historical returns of investment classes
>             a) b) c) etc etc
>         4) Construction of long-term scenarios with a sampling of

Extrapolating from my experience, 99% of all Americans can't wrap
themselves around these concepts. This is especially true of investment
performance (conceptually binary) and annuities (conceptually unary).

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