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Will the Social Security system founder as millions of baby boomers
enter their retirement years? Is the frightening vision of an
impoverished old age a glimpse into the real future for Americans
of the next generation? The authors of this book put debates about
Social Security reform into historical perspective, consider
various reform ideas, and elaborate a proposal to ensure that the
system can continue to meet the claims of the retired and the
disabled. Sylvester J. Schieber and John B. Shoven, leading experts
on retirement issues, set forth a carefully considered plan to
change the way we finance Social Security and thereby secure its
future viability. Exploring the history of the Social Security
system from its origins during the Depression to its current
troubled prospects, Schieber and Shoven analyze the program's
economic structure and introduce the remarkable personalities who
influenced its evolution. The authors show how Social Security
today differs from the program Franklin D. Roosevelt envisioned and
how the shift to pay-as-you-go funding has led to the system's
current problems. Seen in historical context, some reform
approaches are revealed as a renewal of attempts to fund Social
Security through means that have repeatedly failed. The authors
argue for mandatory private retirement savings accounts for
workers-a proposal that would lighten retirement security burdens
for future generations, avoid tax increases, and preserve the
system's progressivity. This book is essential reading not only for
policymakers but for anyone else who wishes to understand what
Social Security reform will mean for us as a nation and as
individuals.
For many of us, Social Security doesn't seem to be the good deal
our parents enjoyed. Pensions from previous generations have either
disappeared or been completely reengineered and, to make matters
worse, we have just gone through the worst decade for investing
since the Depression. As the 'Baby Boomer' generation reaches the
age of 65, Americans are faced with the confounding problem of how
to pay for a growing retired population with increasingly limited
financial resources.Yet the historical evolution of these current
dilemmas has been full of signs indicating that we would arrive
ultimately at where we are now. In Predictable Surprise, Sylvester
J. Schieber explains how retirement systems work and the
implications for various generations of continuing our current
course. He lays the background for the establishment of retirement
programs in the United States, focusing on the beginning of
employer-sponsored pensions and on Social Security. The motivations
for setting up these programs decades ago still persist, despite
current developments. Schieber explains how the original
architecture of Social Security has changed in ways that have led
to current concerns about financing and equity of the program. In
contrast, he shows how Social Security has at the same time defied
change to accommodate to social and economic circumstances that
have evolved since its 1935 inception. Schieber discusses benefits
that Social Security has delivered over time, how the system is
changing before our eyes, and the costs that it has exacted from
various segments of our society. Employing clear and concise
language, Schieber's Predictable Surprise describes the nuances of
the political economics of retirement in an approachable and
applicable manner-just when we need it the most.
The world is getting older and no one knows exactly what life will
be like in tomorrow's older societies. But we do know that age
dependency ratios - the ratio of retirees to workers - will be much
higher than we see today. The implications of this trend are plain.
The combined effects of fewer workers, more retirees and longer
retirement periods threaten not only the sustainability of pension
systems but also the broader economic prospects of many developed
countries. This book describes trends in birth rates, longevity and
labor force participation and productivity, the cross-border flow
of capital, the globalization of labor markets, the financial
viability of social insurance programs, and the ways economic
output is shared between working-age and retiree populations. Our
most effective solution will likely be a multifaceted one: more
workers, longer careers, higher productivity, and more global
exchange and cooperation.
This contributed volume provides a broad-based and in-depth
exploration of demographic and related issues facing American
society as it anticipates the retirement of the so-called baby
boomers. The work provides a critical examination of the population
and labor force projections most commonly used in discussions of
retirement in the next century; looks at issues relating to the
health and age structure of the population, examining those issues
in the context of support mechanisms for retirement income
security; and considers the potential lessons to be learned from
the experiences of other industrialized societies in dealing with
an aging population.
The world is getting older and no one knows exactly what life will
be like in tomorrow's older societies. But we do know that age
dependency ratios - the ratio of retirees to workers - will be much
higher than we see today. The implications of this trend are plain.
The combined effects of fewer workers, more retirees and longer
retirement periods threaten not only the sustainability of pension
systems but also the broader economic prospects of many developed
countries. This book describes trends in birth rates, longevity and
labor force participation and productivity, the cross-border flow
of capital, the globalization of labor markets, the financial
viability of social insurance programs, and the ways economic
output is shared between working-age and retiree populations. Our
most effective solution will likely be a multifaceted one: more
workers, longer careers, higher productivity, and more global
exchange and cooperation.
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