Savings are low, debt is mounting, the dollar is weak, and the economy is projected to grow more slowly in this century than the last. But that’s not the half of it. What we really have to worry about, according to a chorus of prophets, is the prospect of Americans living too long. This failure […]
Richard Leone
Richard Leone was president of the Century Foundation from 1989 to 2011 and a member of the board of directors of The American Prospect. For more, see Paul Starr, “Richard Leone, Capable Liberal.”
Posted inSpecial Report
American Families at Risk
Since the Great Depression, there has been a strong national political consensus supporting policies that help middle-class families cope with the multiple risks in our market economy. These include the risks of illness, destitution in old age, hazards from defective products, polluted natural resources, industrial accidents, corporate frauds, high unemployment, and other assaults largely beyond […]
Posted inFeatures
The Risky Business of Retirement
It’s not your imagination: Americans are facing a lot more risk these days. Gone are the sense of national invulnerability and the notion that we are widely beloved because of our prosperity, our movies, our Bill of Rights, even our McDonald’s. We find ourselves more alone than we have been, perhaps ever, with an unfamiliar […]
Posted inFeatures
Inequality and Social Security
S ocial Security is center stage in the presidential campaign, as it should be. The stakes are enormous. George W. Bush and some Democrats want to divert part of the program to individual retirement accounts. Al Gore would maintain the present system, but supplement it with government-subsidized personal accounts to help low- and middle-income families […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Why Boomers Don’t Spell Bust
We could afford the dependent baby boomer generation once–during its childhood. We can do it again when the boomers retire.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Great Carjacking
Public outrage about auto insurance costs — which almost derailed Christine Todd Whitman’s re-election in New Jersey — is symptomatic of a deeper problem that reforms typically fail to confront.
Posted inFeatures
The Savings Lottery
Perhaps millions of Americans play state lotteries because they are dreamers or, more prosaically, just mathematically challenged. A good libertarian might argue that policy makers should simply shrug and let people spend money as they choose. It’s a free country, after all. The rich have portfolios, stockbrokers, and shrinks; the middle class have stocks, computers, […]
Posted inFeatures
Alexander Hamilton, American and Duel
On the Mount Rushmore of our collective memory, the faces of many of the nation’s founders loom as large weathered archetypes–unchanging men of granite who shaped the American Revolution and the new republic. In reality, of course, these individuals were complicated and sometimes less than admirable. Gore Vidal, in his novel Burr, famously capitalized on […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
What’s Trust Got to Do With It?
Everything. Cynicism is crippling our capacity to deal with public problems.