The problem with our retirement system ISN'T Social Security but in our private pension system, which is riddled with cheap-assed 401(k)s, accounts which are totally inadequate for retirement for the overwhelming majority of people:
The real crisis, in any case, is not Social Security but the colossal failure of the private pension system. Most people know this, either because their 401(k) account is pitifully inadequate, or their company dumped its pension plan, or the plummeting stock market devoured their savings. Obama can protect himself with the public by speaking candidly about this reality and proposing a forceful, long-term solution. He should expand the guarantees that ordinary people need to get their families through these adverse times. Instead of taking away old promises to people, the president should make some new ones. Healthcare reform is obviously an important imperative, but so is retirement security.
The solution to retirement insecurity is the creation of a national pension, alongside Social Security, that would be the bedrock social insurance. Improving Social Security benefits is one step, but it cannot possibly restore what so many middle-class families have lost. Tinkering with the 401(k) would be doomed, because it is basically a tax subsidy for the middle and upper classes, another way to avoid taxes that failed utterly to produce real savings [see Greider, "Riding Into the Sunset," June 27, 2005].
THIS is the area where people should be concerned about Obama. WILL he be a Democrat and support SS, or will he pander to the Wall Street privatizers and their ilk in "think tanks" like the Cato Institute who want to destroy it to create profits for themselves while impoverishing millions upon millions of people in the process?
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