One of the more common arguments against private Social Security accounts, illustrated in a BusinessWeek cover story,
is that stocks are “too risky.” This obviously ignores the option to
purchase the same government bonds that nominally comprise the Social
Security Trust Fund.

One way to ease this concern may be to use
some of the employer contribution to Social Security to pay for the
accounts. That’s basically free money anyway. Everyone acknowledges
that benefits will have to be cut by at least 25% if we do nothing
before 2042, and there is a need for some combination of benefit cuts
and tax increases to address the problem before then. So you cut
benefits to restore solvency and give people the option to play with
their employers’ cash in stocks, bonds, or both. If you focus on the
need for benefit cuts, the ability to invest “free money” may be
ameliorative.