If coverage remains this low, the reforms may not prove politically durable since they are not creating a comprehensive system of income security in old age.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

To some 36 million people, nearly one American in every six, the Social Security system now provides a monthly check promising that old age, widowhood or disabling injury will not throw them into poverty.

CNN: A Debt-Threatened Dream

The Japanese pension system has been used by politicians (as has the U.S. social security system) to buy votes and contributions of the old age lobby, such that benefits being received are substantially, sometimes vastly (8 or 9 times), greater than the amounts paid in.

FORBES: Why the Bureaucracy Won't Reform Old Age Welfare