The Social Security Primer: What Every Citizen Should Know: What Every Citizen Should Know

by Peterson; Paul E

• ISBN13: 9780765603739
• ISBN10: 076560373X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Social Security is America's oldest social program and, by many accounts, our most successful. Yet, in recent years, it has been the focus of enormous publicity, with calls for its reform, repair, abandonment, and preservation. At the root of these differing recommendations are rather disparate points-of-view about how Americans perceive Social Security: as a trust fund, a tax-and-spend system, income transfer from young to old, a "pay as you go" system, or component of "national saving". However one chooses to look at it, Social Security is a program that invites controversy, but, because of its importance to so many, it is also one that deserves close, authoritative scrutiny. The Social Security Primer is an accessible tool that offers a clear understanding of what Social Security has accomplished in the past, challenges it now faces, and possibilities for the future. The full spectrum of up-to-date issues, policies, benefits, and proposed reforms are carefully outlined. For either a current beneficiary or the next generation planning for the future or helping their parents muddle through the social security quagmire, The Primer is a worthwhile and informative read.

Author Biography

Wallace C. Peterson is the George Holmes Professor of Economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	ix
Preface	xiii
Social Security: Is It an Endangered Species?	3	(24)
The Baby Boomers	3	(7)
Attitudes Toward Social Security	10	(4)
Social Security and the Economy	14	(11)
Some Concluding Comments	25	(2)
Getting from Here to There: A Capsule History of Social Security	27	(25)
The Nature of Social Insurance	27	(3)
The Social Security Act of 1935	30	(3)
Social Security After 1935	33	(2)
Medicare and Medicaid	35	(4)
The 1983 ``Big Fix''	39	(2)
Here Come the Boomers	41	(7)
The Boomers and the Culture of Aging	48	(4)
Things Are Not What They Seem: How Social Security Works	52	(30)
Social Security and Private Pensions	52	(5)
How Social Security Works	57	(5)
Operation of the Trust Funds	62	(4)
Economic Condition of the Trust Funds	66	(5)
Factoring in Medicare	71	(1)
Determination of Social Security Benefits	72	(7)
Will the Social Security System Go Broke?	79	(3)
Social Security and the Copernican Question	82	(26)
The Copernican Question	82	(2)
Covered Workers and Beneficiaries of the Social Security System	84	(9)
A Larger Universe: Entitlements and Transfer Spending	93	(7)
The Kerrey-Danforth Bipartisan Commission on Entitlements	100	(4)
The Unfunded Liabilities of the Social Security System	104	(4)
How to Save Social Security	108	(37)
The Privatization Thrust	109	(8)
Reform Within the Existing Pay-As-You-Go Structure	117	(9)
An Alternative Approach to Solving the Social Security Problem	126	(4)
The Copernican Question Again	130	(6)
Factoring in Supplementary Medical Insurance	136	(3)
The Real Answer to the Social Security Problem	139	(5)
A Concluding Comment	144	(1)
Appendices	145	(18)
Notes	163	(6)
Index	169