Here's a modest proposal for saving Social Security. Not a complete proposal, but one that could have a big impact. It's do-able, and it's better than doing nothing.
First, build an interactive "Fix-It-Yourself" Social Security Web site. A professional site built by an interactive agency with consumer marketing cred: flashy, easy to use, and fun . The landing page leads with a well-framed "statement of the problem" showing this graph and the basic facts - in either 2042 or 2052, Social Security benefits will have to be cut to a level that is still higher in real dollars than benefits are today.
From there, you can experiment with your own fixes. Remove the $80K FICA cap and see what happens. Slightly reduce benefits, raise or lower retirement age, privatize a portion of your choosing--and see the results graphed on your screen. Also include bells and whistles like streaming video interviews, links to sources and research, and other fun stuff. Exchange ideas and see visitors' most creative solutions.
Again the "frame" of the site is not that it's anti-reform or pro-reform, but it's about the way the Web lets people learn for themselves.
The result, however, will be to blow through the propaganda about the Social Security "crisis".
Promote it through professionals. Meaning, run ads in AARP's Modern Maturity magazine, Money, Kiplinger's and so on. Run it in books with younger demographics. Hire a PR firm; the press loves stuff like this because it seems like free useful information and takes only a second to run a clip on it; in fact, it would go around most of the bad political correspondents straight to the personal finance/consumer press.
Promote it through blogs. Pass it around the Web, and freep the SCLM to run stories on it. Write LTEs.
It's a completely feasible idea, and is guaranteed to have at least some impact if it's well-promoted.
It requires a couple million in funding to get started; the more media you buy, the more it will cost, of course. But such figures are not astronomical or impossible. Funding is what's needed most, and I don't think it can start with nickel-and-dime grassroots contributions or a bake sale.
Thoughts? Ideas? Anybody looking for a concrete cause to raise funds for?