Importantly, and with greater public welcome than anyone foresaw, private funds have been brought into the social-security system.

ECONOMIST: Watch it, that��s us you��re trampling on

Critics carp that we would have to float bonds to help pay Social Security beneficiaries during the long transition to a more private system.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

This reality is inescapable and is the reason why the real determinant of the feasibility of Social Security (or any other type of retirement system, private or public) is productivity.

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Mr Watts even makes the slightly macabre suggestion that blacks should favour private individual retirement accounts, rather than the current system of state-guaranteed Social Security.

ECONOMIST: Special interests

For decades, policy wonks on the Republican fringes had talked about turning Social Security, the government safety-net program for retirees, into a system of private investment accounts.

NEWYORKER: Fussbudget

"The Homeland Security Advisory System serves various audiences, notably state and local first preventers and first responders, numerous private sector entities and the American citizen and general public, " he said.

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