The Real Deal: The History and Future of Social Security

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Yale University Press, Jan 1, 1999 - Political Science - 450 pages

Will the Social Security system founder as millions of baby boomers enter their retirement years? Is the frightening vision of an impoverished old age a glimpse into the real future for Americans of the next generation? The authors of this book put debates about Social Security reform into historical perspective, consider various reform ideas, and elaborate a proposal to ensure that the system can continue to meet the claims of the retired and the disabled. Sylvester J. Schieber and John B. Shoven, leading experts on retirement issues, set forth a carefully considered plan to change the way we finance Social Security and thereby secure its future viability.
Exploring the history of the Social Security system from its origins during the Depression to its current troubled prospects, Schieber and Shoven analyze the program's economic structure and introduce the remarkable personalities who influenced its evolution. The authors show how Social Security today differs from the program Franklin D. Roosevelt envisioned and how the shift to pay-as-you-go funding has led to the system's current problems. Seen in historical context, some reform approaches are revealed as a renewal of attempts to fund Social Security through means that have repeatedly failed. The authors argue for mandatory private retirement savings accounts for workers--a proposal that would lighten retirement security burdens for future generations, avoid tax increases, and preserve the system's progressivity. This book is essential reading not only for policymakers but for anyone else who wishes to understand what Social Security reform will mean for us as a nation and as individuals.

 

Contents

Avoiding the Downstream Catastrophe
1
From Conception to Maturity
15
The Context for the Passage of the Social Security Act in 1935
17
Developing the Social Security Act of 1935
26
Starting Up and Starting Over
59
To Fund or Not to Fund?
66
1 Pattis Accumulated Pension Benefits and Fund Balances
67
Unresolved Issues
77
The 1983 Amendments
183
Backsliding
196
Fundamental Questions
208
The Iron Rules of Arithmetic Assert Themselves
229
Social Security in the Bigger Picture
242
The New Realities
261
Heathens in the Temple
263
Social Security Today and Marginal Proposals for Reform
290

1 Percentage of Workers Covered by Social Security and
94
8 Hypothetical Population and the Operation of a PayGo
109
A Deal That Couldnt Be Beat
111
The Inside Movers and Shakers 43
115
The Outside Movers Shakers and Takers
128
1 Purchasing Social Security and Pension Benefits During
132
The End of the Beginning
146
1 Social Security Dependency Ratios from 1940 to 1975
148
Overreaching and Stepping Back
163
A Tale of Good Intentions Gone Bad
165
A Framework for Understanding the Options for Social Security Reform
308
The Return to PayGo Financing
328
Wanting to Fund Is Not Enough
346
The Benefits and Risks Under Alternative Forms of Retirement Provision
372
A Proposal for Reform
386
Its Your Money Were Talking About
409
Notes
419
Index
441
Copyright

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About the author (1999)

Sylvester J. Schieber is vice president of research and information at Watson Wyatt Worldwide. John B. Shoven is Charles R. Schwab Professor of Economics at Stanford University.

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