Social Security

Background & Research, Proposals & Commentary

— Robert Eisner, The Century Foundation Press, 1998 • DOWNLOAD PDF •

“What is true of government as a whole is also true of particular programs. Social Security and Medicare are government programs; they cannot go bankrupt, and they cannot fail to meet their obligations unless Congress decides–say on the recommendation of the Simpson-Bowles Commission–to cut the benefits they provide.

The exercise of linking future benefits and projected payroll tax revenues is an accounting farce, done for political reasons. That farce was started by FDR as a way of protecting Social Security from cuts. But it has become a way of creating needless anxiety about these programs and of precluding sensible reforms, like expanding Medicare to those 55 and older, or even to the whole population.”
— James K. Galbraith In Defense of Deficits March 4, 2010

As Social Security and Medicare are tightly linked wrt legal authorization, financial ability to pay and productive capacity to provide, see also Medicare here.

Link to Complete Thread

From Scott Fullwiler via a now closed Twitter account:
• 1/20 There are 3 separate issues regarding ability to provide SS/Medicare in future years–financial ability to pay, legal authority to pay, & productive capacity to provide increasing standard of living to future workers & non-workers.
Complete thread here on provisioning Social Security and Medicare in future years, with a rec to CBO & SS/Medicare trustees.

Historical Background And Development Of Social Security
— Social Security Administration

Social Security: Truth or Useful Fiction?
— L.Randall Wray Center for Full Employment and Price Stability 2004

Financial Aspects of the Social Security “Problem”
— Stephanie Bell Kelton (@StephanieKelton), L. Randall Wray, Center for Full Employment and Price Stability June 2000

Does Social Security Need Saving? Providing for Retirees throughout the Twenty-first Century
— Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, L. Randall Wray The Jerome Levy Economics Institute of Bard College 1999

Proposals & Commentary

On the Security of Social Security
— Max Mastellone (@MaxMastellone), Medium, Aug 24, 2018

Taxes Do Not Fund Social Security. Investment Does (with Spanish translation)

Randall Wray, Deficit Owls Sep 25, 2016

The 1983 Strategy Behind Today’s Social Security Attacks
— Dave Johnson (@DCJohnson) April 8, 2013