Well, I wouldn't want to see that happen, either. The way the economy is structured, so dependent on consumption but so unwilling to pay the high wages necessary to it, everyone is kept on the edge of disaster and encouraged not only to save and invest but in fact to borrow to the limit on credit, and beyond. The reality would be that an awful lot of people would fail to provide for themselves, and we would then be faced with large numbers of old people, unable to support themselves, living in abject poverty and supported by public charity. Ugly. Understand that what I meant by #2 was not an attempt to privatize Social Security or make it voluntary, which is actually a code word for dismantling it. If we are going to do that, we should simply dismantle it honestly.

But to treat the whole thing as an investment program or national 401(k) plan would not be bad. Again, though, we'd need some welfare-like taxing and spending in the interim as the new program is phased in.