Reason: The Death of Social Security: Debating Bush's plan for private retirement accounts

The Death of Social Security: Debating Bush's plan for private retirement accounts:

"The Death of Social Security:
Debating Bush's plan for private retirement accounts.

James K. Glassman and Tyler Cowen

As George W. Bush's second term begins, no item on his agenda is more controversial than Social Security privatization--that is, allowing Americans to divert at least some of their payroll taxes into personal accounts that they can invest in mutual funds or similar instruments. So far, Bush's own plan has been maddeningly vague, but it has opened up a serious debate about transforming a government program that was once so sacrosanct that it was called "the third rail of American politics."

Is privatization necessary? Preferable? Politically viable? In January, with Bush's second inaugural in the offing, Reason invited James K. Glassman, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and host of TechCentralStation.com, to discuss and debate the ins and outs of Social Security reform with Tyler Cowen, the Holbert C. Harris professor of economics and director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. "

Read the full article.