Saving Social Security A Balanced Approach

by Diamond, Peter A.; Orszag, Peter R.

• ISBN13: 9780815718383
• ISBN10: 0815718381
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-12-04
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Summary

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. vi ng Social Security's'sstrategy balances benefit and revenue adjustments, following the precedent set by the last major Social Security reform in the early 1980s. The authors' proposal restores long-term balance and sustainable solvency to the program without imposing additional burdens on the rest of the budget. Further, it protects disability and young survivor benefits and strengthens Social Security's protections for low earners and widows. Most important, the plan preserves the program's core social insurance role by providing a base-level of assured income to American workers and their families in time of need.To better understand the accomplishments and financial problems of Social Security, Diamond and Orszag provide background on the program, as well as on the causes of the long-term deficit. They suggest ways in which various alternative reform plans should be evaluated and explain the shortcomings of proposals to replace part of Social Security with individual accounts. Saving Social Security is essential reading for policymakers involved in reform, analysts, students, and all those interested in the fate of this safeguard of American lives.

Author Biography

Peter A. Diamond is an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Peter R. Orszag is the Joseph A. Pechman Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and a codirector of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
1 Introduction	1	(13)
2 A Brief Overview of Social Security	14	(13)
3 Goals for Social Security Reform	27	(28)
4 Social Security's Long-Term Deficit	55	(24)
5 A Three-Part Plan to shore Up Social Security	79	(20)
6 Strengthening Social Security's Effectiveness as Social Insurance	99	(17)
7 Implications for Benefits and Revenue	116	(17)
8 Individual Accounts	133	(31)
9 Questions and Answers about Our Balanced Reform Plan	164	(29)
10 Conclusions	193	(6)
Appendixes
A Social Security and National Saving	199	(6)
B Trends in Retirement Age	205	(3)
C How the Legacy Debt Arose: A Simplified Example	208	(2)
D Characteristics of Tax-Favored Defined-Contribution Plans	210	(4)
E Should the Trust Fund Invest in the Stock Market?	214	(3)
F Comparisons with Models 2 and 3 of the President's Commission	217	(12)
G Memorandum from the Office of the Chief Actuary	229	(18)
Notes	247	(34)
Index	281
0892366699
Foreword	ix
Acknowledgments	ix
1 Introduction
Robin Middleton
The Ruins of the Most Beautiful Monuments of Greece, Historically and Architecturally Considered
Volume One, Which Contains the Ruins of Those Monuments Erected by the Athenians before the End of the Age of Pericles; with an Essay on the History of Architecture, and a Dissertation on the Length of the Greek Foot
Preface	205	(4)
Essay on the History of Architecture	209	(100)
Part 1. The Ruins of the Monuments Erected by the Athenians before the End of the Age of Pericles, Historically Considered
Part 2. The Ruins of the Monuments Erected by the Athenians before the End of the Age of Pericles and Alexander, Architecturally Considered	309
Volume Two, Which Contains the Ruins of the Monuments Erected by the Athenians after the End of the Age of Pericles and the Antiquities of Corinth and Sparta; with, an Essay on the Theory of Architecture, and a Dissertation on the Length of the Course at Olympia	236	(265)
Essay on the Theory of Architecture	367	(20)
Part 1. The Ruins of the Monuments Erected by the Athenians after the End of the Age of Pericles, Historically Considered; with the Antiquities of Corinth and Sparta	387	(86)
Part 2. The Ruins of the Monuments Erected by the Athenians after the End of the Age of Pericles, Architecturally Considered; with a Description of Two Temples, One at Pola, the Other at Corinth	473	(28)
Works by Le Roy	501	(17)
Works Cited by Le Roy	518
Prospectus	507	(15)
Comparison of Editions	522	(8)
Illustration Credits	530	(2)
Index	532