SOCIAL SECURITY: WHERE CANDIDATES FEAR TO TREAD

SOCIAL SECURITY NEEDS RADICAL FIXES, BUT DON'T EXPECT CLINTON OR DOLE TO TAKE THE RISK

THE GENE THAT CAUSES OTHerwise normal people to seek elective office is encoded with a warning: Don't mess with Social Security. Now, suddenly, the opposite is becoming true. So many average citizens are aware that the system could be bankrupt within 25 years that politicians who deny the problem risk losing their credibility. In fact, the greatest philosophical shift in Social Security's 60-year history is actually in the offing--a move toward privatizing at least a portion of the system so that workers could establish individual retirement accounts and invest in stocks and bonds. Still, swift action is unlikely. It's an election...

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