No Quick Fix for Social Security System

To hear President Bush, allowing private Social Security accounts for individual workers would help bail out the demographically challenged system.

He has acknowledged that the system will be unable to pay benefits to our children and grandchildren unless courageous action is taken.

To strengthen Social Security, according to his campaign Web site, Bush would not increase payroll taxes, but he would set up voluntary personal accounts for younger workers: "The president understands that Social Security must be fixed, and workers deserve to own part of their Social Security benefits and to build a nest egg for retirement."

As the debate on the future of Social Security heats up in Washington, however, a chorus of critics says that private accounts will do nothing to shore up the system.

If anything, they will likely hasten the projected shortfall in funds that's due after 2030, because of the retirement of the massive baby boomer generation, and add a huge layer of government bureaucracy that will live in the shadow of Social Security.

"I would hope that members of Congress would see that private accounts in Social Security are a mistake," says David Certner, director of federal affairs for AARP, the powerful advocacy group for older persons. "There are plenty of options to get you to solvency." The AARP is adamantly opposed to the idea.

Olivia S. Mitchell, a professor of insurance and risk management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, was a member of the 2001 President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security created by Bush to explore privatizing some contributions to the system.

Mitchell believes that it is possible to funnel some money away from Social Security into private accounts managed by workers and still improve it. She says the term "privatization" is extremely misleading because it implies eventually a shuttering of the agency.