Social Security, on the other hand, is essentially a membership organization. Though it covers tens of millions of employees and beneficiaries, what ties Social Security together is a single set of rules that defines its responsibility to all its members. Now, with Social Security's future hanging in the balance, we find ourselves once again drawn into the participatory implications of our latest Social Security crisis. Trillions of dollars at stake and millions of seats at the table, but only one set of rules, and only one decision to be made, which, in the final analysis, all of us must make jointly. Small wonder that Congress has gotten so stalemated on Social Security reform.
Joint decisions are so much harder than individual customer purchase decisions.
Yet the political stalemate on Social Security reform, though understandable, is both dangerous and expensive. It cannot be allowed to continue. An effective strategy for saving Social Security must somehow be pieced together. Let's begin with three cards dealt face up. This stalemate has many fathers.