Framing the Social Security Debate: Values, Politics, and Economics
Type
In his 1998 State of the Union address, President Clinton challenged Americans to a public debate about how to fix the long-term financial problems of Social Security. This annual volume of the National Academy of Social Insurance provides a framework for that debate. Competing reform proposals reflect contrasting views about the nature of the Social Security problem and how to solve it. This book examines issues about privatization, national savings and economic growth, the political risks and realities in reforms, lessons from private pensions developments in the United States, and the efforts of other advanced industrial countries to adapt their old-age pensions to an aging population. It also poses philosophical arguments about collective versus individual responsibility and the implications of market risks and political risks for stable and secure retirement income policy. The contributors are Theo Angelis, Michael J. Boskin, Peter A. Diamond, John Geanakoplos, Hugh Heclo, Karen C. Holden, Howell Jackson, Olivia Mitchell, Dallas L. Salisbury, Lawrence H. Thompson, Kent Weaver, and Stephen P. Zeldes. Copublished with the National Academy of Social Insurance.
Contents
1. Introduction / 1
Alicia H. Munnell
2. Values, Politics, and Economics in Social Security Reform / 29
A Framework for Considering Social Security Reform / 29
Michael J. Boskin
The Economics of Social Security Reform / 38
Peter A. Diamond
A Political Science Perspective on Social Security Reform / 65
Hugh Heclo
3. Pensions and Savings -- In What Form? / 95
Employers and Individuals Must Do More Today to Allow Retirement Tomorrow / 95
Dallas L. Salisbury
4. Social Security: In What Form? / 113
Individual Uncertainty in Retirement Income Planning under Different Public Pension Regimes / 113
Lawrence H. Thompson
Would a Privatized Social Security System Really Pay a Higher Rate of Return? / 137
John Geanakoplos, Olivia Mitchell, and Stephen P. Zeldes
Insuring against the Consequences of Widowhood in a Reformed Social Security System / 157
Karen C. Holden and Cathleen Zick
5. Insights from Social Security Reform Abroad / 183
The Politics of Pensions: Lessons from Abroad / 183
R. Kent Weaver
6. Public Investment in Private Markets / 287
Investing Public Money in Private Markets: What Are the Right Questions? / 287
Theodore J. Angelis
7. Public Opinion and the Politics of Reforming Social Security / 355
Myths and Misunderstandings about Public Opinion toward Social Security / 355
Lawrence R. Jacobs and Robert Y. Shapiro
The Political Feasibility of Social Security Reform / 389
R. Douglas Arnold
Contributors / 431
Conference Program / 433
Index / 439