A decent society must make provision for the poor and the unfortunate. It was a lesson as old as the Bible, though too many had chosen not to learn it before. It's time to relearn that lesson. Monday's news ought to put to rest the current notion of privatizing Social Security. Letting individuals invest their government retirement accounts on their own, even partly, counteracts the very idea of Social Security as society's way of ensuring a decent future for all.
Private investment is a gamble.
It's also time to rethink some broader questions of poverty and wealth. The free-market economy, beloved of Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats alike, is a cruel master. Markets may allocate resources efficiently, but along the way they can wreak unacceptable tolls in human misery. A decent society must regulate the economy to soften its shocks and minimize their impact on the weak. It must adopt measures to guarantee the welfare of the poor, the sick and the elderly, regardless of how they came to be in need.