The Crisis in Social Security: Problems and Prospects

Front Cover
Michael J. Boskin
Transaction Publishers, 1977 M01 1 - 214 pages

From inside the book

Contents

II
1
V
17
VI
25
VII
31
VIII
41
IX
65
XII
87
XIII
107
XVI
173
XVIII
191
XIX
193
XX
203
XXI
205
XXII
207
XXIII
209
XXIV
217

XIV
125
XV
147

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Page 151 - Security, administers a national program of contributory social insurance whereby employees, employers, and the self-employed pay contributions which are pooled in special trust funds. When earnings stop or are reduced because the worker retires, dies, or becomes disabled, monthly cash benefits are paid to replace part of the earnings the family has lost.
Page 20 - ... not guaranteed these benefits by contract and could in principle be deprived of them by a legislative change, the past experience of the program and the current legislation suggest not only that benefits will continue to be paid, but also that they will increase with the general level of income.6 These implicit Social Security annuities are an important part of each family's wealth.
Page 25 - A man who continues working after age sixty-five will be required to pay additional taxes, yet may receive no benefits at all. Social security is not in any meaningful sense an insurance program in which individual payments purchase equivalent actuarial benefits.
Page 23 - The basic idea of social security is a simple one: During working years employees, their employers, and self-employed people pay social security contributions which are pooled in special trust funds.
Page 21 - ... income can be expected to grow in the future and the appropriate rate of interest at which to discount future benefits in evaluating the future annuity benefits. In a recent study," I estimated the 1971 value of this social security wealth at $2 trillion.
Page 191 - wealth" is not real wealth but only an implicit promise that the next generation will tax itself to pay the annuities currently specified in the law. Although there are no tangible assets corresponding to this "wealth...
Page 21 - To put this number in some perspective, note that $197 billion is nearly 25 percent of total consumer spending, nearly twice the total of individual income tax payments, and substantially more than twice the level of national defense expenditures. Viewed somewhat differently, $197 billion is $920 per person, or more than $2500 per family. Let me emphasize that this lower level of GNP reflects the pay-as-you-go nature of our social security system.
Page 172 - Toward solving social security's long-run financial problems The old age component of Social Security is intended to achieve two major goals: to replace income lost at retirement and to provide minimum income support for the aged. The second of these, sometimes called the transfer or welfare goal of the System, aims at providing some socially adequate level of support; the first is an attempt to provide social insurance against the vagaries of macroeconomic fluctuation, imperfections in private insurance...
Page 21 - Viewed somewhat differently, $197 billion is $920 per person, or more than $2500 per family. Let me emphasize that this lower level of GNP reflects the pay-as-you-go nature of our social security system. It is because social security taxes are used to pay concurrent benefits that the capital stock is smaller and income is less than it would otherwise be. The substantial reduction in our nation's savings implies that there is less capital per worker in the economy.

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