Social Security in the 21st Century

By Schulz Kingson

Book Overview

Social security has proven to be one of the most successful programs in the United States. No other program has done more to transform old age or to protect family incomes against economic risks arising from the disability or death of a working family member. Polls consistently show strong support for Social Security, but these same polls also show that the public, especially the young, is skeptical about whether Social Security will be able to meet its obligations. The program's harshest opponents call it a "Ponzi scheme." Arguing that the young will be left "holding the bag," they call for a shift towards greater personal savings or means-testing. Experts agree that the aging of the baby boom, longer life expectancies, and a changing economy will impose new challenges. But seeing no impending disaster, they point to reforms that leave intact basic Social Security commitments and structure. Not surprisingly, the public is confused and has many unanswered questions.
Social Security in the 21st Century offers an introduction to the basic economic, demographic, and political aspects of social security, and addresses the questions most often asked regarding this subject. Featuring nationally recognized experts, the book presents clear, authoritative, and balanced discussions of contemporary Social Security issues, offering the historical background, concepts, statistics, and options necessary to make informed judgments about the program. These issues include the program's financial viability, its effects on the economy and the federal deficit, its consonance with American values, the adequacy of benefits for today's and tomorrow's old, its fairness to women and the young, disability reform and generational equity. It explains both the social insurance principles and political history related to the development of Social Security in the United States. The book avoids using technical jargon, making it ideal for a wide ranging audience including policymakers, teachers, journalists, students, and the general public. Special attention is given to the future and how Social Security can be changed to respond to the needs of generations to come.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195104250
• ISBN13: 9780195104257
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Student Review

Social Security in the 21st Century Social Security in the 21st Century offers many different intuitive looks into today's social security system. The authors of this book gave a complete view of social security based on three different categories. The book began with an overview of social security, followed by some issues that are affected by social security. Such issues include means testing, old age, and the possibility of social security running out of funds. Finally, the book discussed where social security should go in the future, whether it involves massive change or staying with traditional methods. The first couple chapters gave a great overview of social security, including the development of social security in the United States. Chapter one gave insight into strengths and weaknesses of the social insurance approach. This approach encompasses old age, survivors, disability insurance programs, hospital insurance, and unemployment insurance. The book provided good insight into how the programs based on social insurance are the largest component of the United States social welfare system. Chapter two provided a good basis of the historical development of social security in the United States. The book's history of social security in the U.S. gives a complete description as to why social security was developed. Discussing the history of social security along with where it was when the book was published provided a good bridge into the next couple of chapters. The middle chapters dealt with current issues that are affected by social security. Means testing is one of these issues that the book stressed as very important. The old approach sought to restrict public benefits to the poor simply based on their financial status. In contrast, the new approach seeks to reduce benefits to higher income persons by an income test applied through the tax system. The author provides valuable insight as to why the new approach should be implemented because social security will be unable to meet its commitments to baby-boomers and those in old age if it is not. This obviously is a very important current issue involving social security, and the book provides extensive knowledge on the topic.The last few chapters gave us two views on the future of social security. The first dealt with establishing guidelines for how future reform should proceed by getting back to basics and examining fundamental principles. As the book says, future reform will need constant review to ensure that social security will be there tomorrow so that all future generations can benefit from it. The second view states that since the system has never missed a payday in 60 years of existence, it should stay in much the same form based on the same principles. These two views make it easy to understand why the future of social security is such a controversy among Americans. In conclusion, the many different authors provided a comprehensive overview of the past, present, and future of soc