Social Security ESOP Questions

What provisions of law must be changed and/or what would the impact be on ESOP financing of having OASI contributions flow to ESOPs?

What is preferable, providing survivors insurance for current workers as part of ESOP or to continue this program as social insurance?

What provisions of law would be required to allow ESOPs to serve the function of a credit union to provide home, car, education and line of credit loans (allowing members to borrow against their stock and future incomes without cashing out) and to have the ESOP to receive the home mortgage deduction and student loan deduction directly instead of transferring this to the employee? (note that this approach could bring the Credit Unions into an ESOP privatization coalition).

Can ESOPs hold “diversified shares and assets” or merely be part of a larger 401(k) plan that does so? What provisions of law must be changed, if any, to allow this and retain S Corporation benefits? Might some of these diversified shares be held as public monopoly Customer Stock Ownership Plans (CSOPs) and community development Community Investment Corporations in geographic areas where the firm does business? (this diversified approach might win over Wall Street, which might be a big loser otherwise if ESOPs became the primary focus for OASI privatization).

OASI benefits are currently redistributional. Using the employer contribution to provide flexibility, how could ESOPs duplicate progressivity in making ESOP contributions in lieu of OASI contributions? Might an alternative be to have employee contributions tied to income while the employer contribution is distributed equally – regardless of wage and salary level?
(this approach might win over such organizations as the Center for Budgetary and Policy Priorities, especially if they agreed to run the numbers)

What is better, to have a different ESOP for each “faction” in a firm (labor, management, engineering) or to provide for factional voting and representation for and on the ESOP board? What, if any, provisions of law must be changed in each case? If allowable under current law, how might this be accomplished?

How would a Union convert its pension fund into a series of ESOPs for its members in particular firms? (note that the previous approaches might be useful in bring labor into the coalition)

One possible option to transition from the current Social Security system to an ESOP based system is to allow employers and employees to cease contributing to FICA if past employees and retirees are or have previously been fully capitalized in the firm’s ESOP as if participating under the new provisions their entire tenure with the firm. At what point would it be in the interest of ESOPs to pursue this option and what federal financial incentives might hasten this (i.e., federal securities to capitalize the social security trust fund surplus – or some level over and above a fair distribution of this trust fund)?

Would raising or eliminating the income cap subject to OASI taxation actually help ESOPs by providing more funds for investment under the above scenario? Would such an increase speed the transition? 

Regarding individual contributions to OASI, how would percentage contribution to a 401(k) or ESOP and percentage contribution to FICA be varied by income to both maintain progressivity and finance transition costs? Might ESOPs make these transitional contributions to OASI for employees and then have the employee reimburse the ESOP over time?