A Short Course in Private Accounts

President Bush talked a lot during the election campaign about reforming Social Security by allowing younger workers to divert some of their payroll taxes to private investment accounts, but most Americans probably have little idea what these private accounts would look like.

Fortunately, it's laid out by the 2001 Commission to Strengthen Social Security, a bipartisan group President Bush appointed to suggest ways to shore up the system and help workers by creating voluntary private accounts. During the recent presidential campaign, he made it clear that these accounts are for younger workers, not those close to retirement.

The commission came up with model private accounts, which are intended to give workers greater benefits than those paid to today's retirees and "to build substantial wealth." ...