1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910824052003321

Autore

Diamond Peter A

Titolo

Saving Social Security : a balanced approach / / Peter A. Diamond, Peter R. Orszag

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Washington, D.C., : Brookings Institution Press, c2004

ISBN

0-8157-9623-4

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (320 p.)

Altri autori (Persone)

OrszagPeter R

Disciplina

368.4/3/00973

Soggetti

Social security - United States

Retirement income - Government policy - United States

Old age pensions - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

A brief overview of Social Security -- Goals for Social Security reform -- Social Security's long-term deficit -- A balanced three-part plan to shore up Social Security -- Strengthening Social Security's effectiveness as social insurance -- Implications of our reform plan for benefits and revenue -- Individual accounts -- Questions and answers about our balanced reform plan -- Conclusions -- Appendixes:  A. Social Security and national saving -- B. Trends in retirement age -- C. How the legacy debt arose: A simplified example -- D. Characteristics of tax-favored defined-contribution plans -- E. Should the trust fund invest in the stock market? -- F. Comparisons with models 2 and 3 of the President's Commission -- G. Memorandum from the Office of the Chief Actuary.

Sommario/riassunto

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's strategy 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.