Publications -- Social Security

Mar 22, 2005

BA #509 – Answering the Myths about Social Security

Social Security reform is at the top of President Bush's second term agenda - and for good reason. In the next decade, two monumental shifts will occur: 1) the first of the 77 million baby boomers will start drawing benefits and stop paying payroll taxes, and 2) funds available to pay Social Security and Medicare benefits will fall increasingly short of promises we have made.

Feb 25, 2005

BA #506 – Social Security Reform: Keeping Administrative Costs Low

Public pension programs - including the U.S. Social Security system - tax workers to pay current retirees' benefits. But in the United States, as in other developed nations, falling birthrates and rising life expectancies leave fewer workers to support each retiree. Without reform these factors will eventually require large tax increases, large benefit cuts or both to keep the programs alive.

Feb 25, 2005

BA #505 – Social Security Reform: Reducing the Risk of Poverty

President Bush wants to add a personal investment component to the U.S. Social Security system. Under a Bush-style reform plan, workers would be able to contribute a portion of their payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts, which would pay a gradually increasing part of their retirement benefits.

Feb 24, 2005

BA #504 – Social Security Reform: Looking at the Options

The present value of Social Security's long-term funding gap is $11 trillion in 2004 dollars. That means we would need $11 trillion in the bank today, earning the government's borrowing rate, to eliminate all of the program's future debt. Another way to reduce this debt is to reduce Social Security's obligations.

Feb 15, 2005

BA #502 – The Coming Fiscal Deluge

In 2011, the first group of baby boomers will reach the age of 65. When the last of that generation retires in 2032, 77 million of them will have ceased working and paying taxes and will have begun receiving taxpayer-funded health care and pension benefits.

Dec 17, 2004

ST #272 – Social Security Reform without Illusion: The Five Percent Solution

America’s entitlement programs for senior citizens are on an unsustainable course. Unless changes are made soon, we face the prospect of exorbitant tax rates or severe benefit cuts.

Dec 09, 2004

ST #271 – Private Pension Annuities in Chile

Chile adopted a new pension system featuring privately managed individual accounts in 1981. The system gives us an opportunity, based on more than 20 years of experience, to examine how pensioners and pension providers react when individual accounts replace government-run, defined benefit pension systems, and how various regulations shape these reactions. This paper focuses on the payout stage.

Dec 01, 2004

BA #495 – Retirement Savings Reforms on which the Left and the Right Can Agree

As the baby boomers near retirement, defects in the nation's private pension system are becoming obvious. Only about half of workers contribute to an employer-sponsored pension plan in any given year, and Individual Retirement Account (IRA) participation rates are substantially lower. Among workers with tax-preferred retirement saving plans, few make the maximum allowable contribution. And despite the many private savings incentives, many households approach retirement with meager funds.

Oct 13, 2004

BA #490 – How Will We Pay for Social Security and Medicare?

Social Security and Medicare are making future promises much greater than the taxes that will be collected at current rates. Unfortunately, some policymakers seem to be intent on making the problem worse, not better. Reforms are needed that create more saving today for retirement and increase the nation's capital stock.

Jun 04, 2004

ST #266 – The 2004 Medicare and Social Security Trustees Reports

The 2004 Medicare and Social Security Trustees Reports show that programs for the elderly are on an unsustainable course. The expenditures exceed the revenues to be collected, and the funding gap is projected to grow through time.