Security Blanket

IT has long been a free-market dream: changing Social Security from a redistributionist, pay-as-you-go social program to a personalized system of private retirement accounts. Once confined to Cato Institute seminars and Philadelphia Society meetings, the idea now has lawmakers of all ideological stripes buzzing. And yet, a big political obstacle remains. Privatizing Social Security would be reform on a grand scale, involving many billions of dollars—and the retirement prospects of many elderly and near-elderly voters.

What reformers need is a trial run, a demonstration that average folks can manage their money just as well as government bureaucrats can (or, indeed, better). Supporters point to Chile, Australia, and Great Britain as proof that it can be done.

About the Author

John Hood

John Hood is president of the John William Pope Foundation, a North Carolina-based grantmaker, and co-founder of Freedom Conservatism.

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IT has long been a free-market dream: changing Social Security from a redistributionist, pay-as-you-go social program to a personalized system of private retirement accounts. Once confined to Cato Institute seminars and Philadelphia Society meetings, the idea now has lawmakers of all ideological stripes buzzing. And yet, a big political obstacle remains. Privatizing Social Security would be reform on a grand scale, involving many billions of dollars—and the retirement prospects of many elderly and near-elderly voters.

What reformers need is a trial run, a demonstration that average folks can manage their money just as well as government bureaucrats can (or, indeed, better). Supporters point to Chile, Australia, and Great Britain as proof that it can be done.