Conclusion

The unyielding resistance to the partial privatization of Social Security and the expansion of tax-advantaged retirement savings arrangements has long baffled me. We seem to have moved a long way from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s innovative, but experimental, approach. In his January 1939 letter to Congress, recommending certain improvements in the Social Security system, Roosevelt wrote: “We shall make the most orderly progress if we look upon social security as a development toward a goal rather than a finished product.” ¹ On signing the amendments to the Social Security Act in August 1939, Roosevelt observed, “ . . . [W]e must expect a great program of social legislation, such as is represented in the Social Security Act, to be improved and strengthened in the light of additional experience and understanding.” ² In FDR’s spirit, this chapter analyzes the underlying objections to fundamental Social Security reform and the enhancement of tax-favored personal and employer-sponsored plans. It also briefly considers the impact of dramatic, future life expectancy gains on financial security in retirement.