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While social security has achieved an impressive reduction of poverty among the elderly, it is on a collision course with insolvency. The program has other serious shortcomings: an inequitable distribution of wealth across generations; discouragement of work and savings; and an imposition of heavy taxes on younger workers. Boskin proposes to solve these problems (except the long-term deficit, for which he has no ready answers) by substituting a two-tier system. The first tier (the insurance element) would provide actuarially equivalent insurance for retirement annuities, disability, and catastrophic hospital care. The second tier would guarantee minimally adequate retirement benefits for all citizens.