Richard Parsons

Mr. Parsons addressed two subjects: corporate responsibility and Social Security reform. As to the first, what was fresh in his mind was the response of Corporate America to the disaster wrought by hurricane Katrina. Corporate America within a matter of literally days amassed and contributed some $350 million, hard money. There has been a sea change in the corporate community regarding the need and responsibility of corporations to be good citizens. As to the second, the reality is, the Social Security System is structurally unbalanced. It cannot work. At some point in time, it has to break. This System has to be fixed. It’s a System that has to be moved to a new place, the nation must start to migrate the System to one that is funded now.