Prospects for Social Security Reform

Prospects for Social Security Reform PDF

Author: Olivia S. Mitchell

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 1999-01-29

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 9780812234794

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The United States social security system is the nation's largest social insurance program. As such, it has a far-reaching impact throughout the economy, influencing not only old-age economic security but also many behaviors, including corporate employment policy, retirement patterns, and personal saving. In the past, the system's universal coverage and generous benefits ensured popular support to a degree enjoyed by no other form of "big government" social spending. Yet over two-thirds of all Americans today believe that the social security system will face bankruptcy by the time they retire. The question of social security reform—how to reform the system or whether the system needs reform at all—is the subject of heated debate at all levels of government, in the media, and among workers, pensioners, and employers. Prospects for Social Security Reform informs the debate by exploring why the system is at a crossroads today and what to do about it. Contributors detail the size and nature of the problem, explain views of key "stakeholders" regarding reform options, and report new evidence on how reform might affect the economy. Research findings and public opinion polls are analyzed, as are lessons from other countries experimenting with new ways to deliver old-age benefit promises. No other volume includes as diverse and expert a set of perspectives on reform and privatization as those gathered here from economists, actuaries, employers, investment managers, and representatives of organized labor. Among its chapters is the path-breaking study "Social Security Money's Worth," the 1999 winner of the TIAA-CREF's Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security.

Individual Accounts for Social Security Reform

Individual Accounts for Social Security Reform PDF

Author: John Andrew Turner

Publisher: W E Upjohn Inst for

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 9780880992824

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Individual accounts can be categorized with respect to the incentive for their provision or with respect to their relationship to social security pensions. Combining these two approaches, social security reform using individual accounts can occur five different ways: (1) voluntary carve-outs that partially replace social security, (2) voluntary carve-outs that fully replace social security, (3) mandatory add-ons to social security through legal requirements, (4) mandatory carve-outs that partially replace social security, (5) mandatory carve-outs that fully replace social security. Of these approaches, this book, in the context of possible U.S. reforms, focuses on three: voluntary carve-outs that partially replace social security, mandatory add-ons, and mandatory carve-outs that partially replace social security. One of the themes of the book is that the effects of individual accounts depend on which type of accounts are being considered. It is important to distinguish between add-ons and carve-outs. Another dimension of the structure of individual accounts is their financial management. For either add-on or carve-out accounts, individual accounts can be managed at least three ways: the Chilean model, the Australian model, and the Swedish model. This book focuses on the Chilean and Swedish models of financial management as being the approaches most relevant for the United States to consider.

Privatizing Social Security

Privatizing Social Security PDF

Author: Martin Feldstein

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 0226241823

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This volume represents the most important work to date on one of the pressing policy issues of the moment: the privatization of social security. Although social security is facing enormous fiscal pressure in the face of an aging population, there has been relatively little published on the fundamentals of essential reform through privatization. Privatizing Social Security fills this void by studying the methods and problems involved in shifting from the current system to one based on mandatory saving in individual accounts. "Timely and important. . . . [Privatizing Social Security] presents a forceful case for a radical shift from the existing unfunded, pay-as-you-go single national program to a mandatory funded program with individual savings accounts. . . . An extensive analysis of how a privatized plan would work in the United States is supplemented with the experiences of five other countries that have privatized plans." —Library Journal "[A] high-powered collection of essays by top experts in the field."—Timothy Taylor, Public Interest

Saving Social Security

Saving Social Security PDF

Author: Peter A. Diamond

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2006-05-25

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0815797834

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New in Paperback. While everyone agrees that Social Security is a vital and necessary government program, there have been widely divergent plans for reforming it. Peter A. Diamond and Peter R. Orszag, two of the nation's foremost economists, propose a reform plan that would rescue the program both from its projected financial problems and from those who would destroy the program in order to save it. Since the publication of the first edition of this book in 2004, the Social Security debate has moved to the center of the domestic policy agenda. In this updated edition of Saving Social Security, the authors analyze the Bush Administration's proposal for individual accounts and discuss the so-called "price indexing" proposal to restore long-term solvency through changing how initial benefits would be calculated. Soc ial Security is essis essential reading for policymakers involved in reform, analysts, students, and all those interested in the fate of this safeguard of American lives. "An honest, transparent and comprehensive approach to making the much needed reforms to the Social Security program."—Journal of Pensions, Economics, and Finance "Very accessible presentation of facts, analysis of underlying problems, comparison of opinions, and argument for proposed reforms."—Future Survey Exhaustively researched and deeply entrenched in practical issues and mathematical calculations... a highly recommended ray of hope against a looming national crisis." —Wisconsin Bookwatch "Diamond and Orszag bring some welcome realism and decency to the debate."—Robert M. Solow, Institute Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nobel Laureate in Economics

Social Security and Its Discontents

Social Security and Its Discontents PDF

Author: Michael Tanner

Publisher: Cato Institute

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9781930865556

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Tanner (Cato Project on Social Security Choice) brings together work by leaders in Social Security reform, examining problems of the current system and offering proposals for reform. Contributors in economics, law, and philosophy, many affiliated with the Cato Institute, examine aspects of the problem related to issues such as property rights, the impact of Social Security reform on low-income workers, and how stock market declines affect the reform debate. They advocate allowing younger workers to privately invest their Social Security taxes through individual accounts.

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