Perhaps these numbers have already been run (I suspect they have somewhere), in which case I'd appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction. Otherwise, can some economist or reliable number-cruncher crunch forth and figure out what percentage of the population would be required to use more than 80% of their private account 'nest-egg' to purchase an annuity.

Come to think of it, that approach only makes sense if the president were proposing 100% phase-out rather than 30%. And that probably won't be sprung on the public for several more years. So given the fact that the benefit-cut-clawback that goes along with your private account would probably bring monthly payments for many below the poverty line, can someone put together some reasonably concrete numbers on what percentage of private account holders will never really get their hands on the thing because they'll be forced to spend the whole thing, or the lion's share of it, on an annuity?

Later we can get into what a bad deal most annuities are supposed to be.