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Editor: 

“Need to save Social Security, economy, America” was the headline of an article in the Planet (8/23/01) which must have raised hackles on many of us who remember when Social Security was born in 1936. How the rich fought it! That they still hate it is clear.  

The Bush committee to “strengthen” it is not telling us how remarkably effective and vitally essential it is to millions of families. Rather, in its August report this committee worries about how little Americans are saving and how “educational” it would be for the poor to have the opportunity to invest part of their Social Security benefits in the market. 

Let us risk our savings, our IRAs, in the market whenever we please, but leave Social Security alone! It will be fine for dozens of years. Thoughtful people will make adjustments when needed without destroying the whole safety net as is now being so eagerly (and so deviously) proposed. 

Dorothy Headley 

Berkeley