The Political Future of Social Security in Aging Societies

The Political Future of Social Security in Aging Societies
Author: Vincenzo Galasso
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 026257246X

A quantitative analysis of the political sustainability of social security reform in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the US, with the suggestion that population aging will lead to more pension spending and that raising the retirement age is the most politically viable reform measure.

The Future of Social Security

The Future of Social Security
Author: Alicia Haydock Munnell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 212
Release: 1977
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Monograph on the impact of the social security and old age benefit programme on personal saving for retirement in the USA - includes the research methodology. Bibliography pp. 133 to 136, references and statistical tables.

The Distributional Aspects of Social Security and Social Security Reform

The Distributional Aspects of Social Security and Social Security Reform
Author: Martin Feldstein
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2007-11-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0226241890

Social security is the largest and perhaps the most popular program run by the federal government. Given the projected increase in both individual life expectancy and sheer number of retirees, however, the current system faces an eventual overload. Alternative proposals have emerged, ranging from reductions in future benefits to a rise in taxrevenue to various forms of investment-based personal retirement accounts. As this volume suggests, the distributional consequences of these proposals are substantially different and may disproportionately affect those groups who depend on social security to avoid poverty in old age. Together, these studies persuasively show that appropriately designed investment-based social security reforms can effectively reduce the long-term burden of an aging society on future taxpayers, increase the expected future income of retirees, and mitigate poverty rates among the elderly.

Aging Nation

Aging Nation
Author: James H. Schulz
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2006-10-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0313027455

With the impending retirement of some 76 million Baby Boomers, understanding the economic, political, and social issues related to the aging population is paramount. If the doom-and-gloomers have their way, the elderly will be put out to pasture, with inadequate health care and financial resources, and a crumbling social welfare system. In Aging Nation, renowed experts in the field, James Schulz and Robert Binstock, agree that there is considerable cause for concern, but with a variety of sound policies and programs in place and smart individual choices, the elderly can prosper, and a demographic tsunami is not inevitable. Drawing from the most current data, the authors provide in-depth analysis of the nation's evolving private and public policies on retirement, faltering employer pensions, health care, workplace conditions, and entitlement programs, and consider such timely issues as poverty among the elderly, rejoining the workforce after retirement, Social Security and health care reform, and the rise of the elderly as a powerful political force. Dispelling popular myths and misconceptions that are perpetrated by politicians and pundits alike, they provide a comprehensive and balanced assessment of the issues and their impact on everyone, old and young. Deserving poor or greedy geezers? The debate rages on. In a period of huge government deficits and the impending retirement of some 76 million Baby Boomers, understanding the economic, political, and social issues related to the aging population is paramount. The policy debates have never been more contentious; they range from deciding who should receive limited subsidized housing and medical services to the ongoing battle over saving Social Security and other entitlement programs. If the doom-and-gloomers have their way, the elderly will be put out to pasture, with inadequate health care and financial resources, and a crumbling social welfare infrastructure that will implode under the strain of intergenerational conflict. This book debunks most aging crises put forth by merchants of doom and offers a new policy focus for our nation. In Aging Nation, renowned experts in the field, James Schulz and Robert Binstock, agree that there is considerable cause for concern, but with a variety of sound policies and programs in place and smart individual choices, the elderly can prosper, and a demographic tsunami is not inevitable. Drawing from the most current data, the authors provide in-depth analysis of the nation's evolving private and public policies on retirement, faltering employer pensions, health care, workplace conditions, and entitlement programs, and consider such timely issues as poverty among the elderly, rejoining the workforce after retirement, Social Security and health care reform, and the rise of the elderly as a powerful political force. Dispelling popular myths and misconceptions that are perpetrated by politicians and pundits alike, they provide a comprehensive and balanced assessment of these issues and their impact on everyone, old and young.

Social Security Policy in a Changing Environment

Social Security Policy in a Changing Environment
Author: Jeffrey R. Brown
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 473
Release: 2009-12-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226076504

Social Security Policy in a Changing Environment analyzes the changing economic and demographic environment in which social insurance programs that benefit elderly households will operate. It also explores how these ongoing trends will affect future beneficiaries, under both the current social security program and potential reform options. In this volume, an esteemed group of economists probes the challenge posed to Social Security by an aging population. The researchers examine trends in private sector retirement saving and health care costs, as well as the uncertain nature of future demographic, economic, and social trends—including marriage and divorce rates and female participation in the labor force. Recognizing the ambiguity of the environment in which the Social Security system must operate and evolve, this landmark book explores factors that policymakers must consider in designing policies that are resilient enough to survive in an economically and demographically uncertain society.

Public Policy and the Aging

Public Policy and the Aging
Author: William W. Lammers
Publisher: Washington, D.C. : CQ Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 1983
Genre: Law
ISBN:

Abstract: Public policy areas that affect the aging in complex ways are examined and assessed for policy analysts and decision makers. The relevant issues caused by shifts in federal and state government roles are considered. The tension between means and incomes for current and future programs affecting the aging, the special problems of older women, the hospice movement, safer environments, the aging as consumers, and the consequences of inflation are all analyzed. Specific topics include policy making factors, social security, employment, retirement and pension policies, health and long-term care policies, including medicaid and medicare, social services, and housing policies. The effects of policies of the 1980s and the future on the US aging population are discussed. Major programs affecting the aging are extensively analyzed and alternatives are considered. A glossary and bibliography are appended. (wz).

Social Security and the Politics of Deservingness

Social Security and the Politics of Deservingness
Author: Susanne N. Beechey
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2016-06-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1349918911

This book seeks to understand the politics of deservingness for future Social Security reforms through an interpretive policy analysis of the 2005 Social Security privatization debates. What does it mean for politics and policymaking that Social Security recipients are widely viewed as deserving of the benefits they receive? In the 2005 privatization debates, Congress framed Social Security in exclusively positive terms, often in opposition to welfare, and imagined their own beloved family members as recipients. Advocates for private accounts sought to navigate the politics of deservingness by dividing the “we” of social insurance to a “me” of private investment and a “them” of individual rate of return in order to justify the introduction of private accounts into Social Security. Fiscal stress on the program will likely bring Social Security to the policy agenda soon. Understanding the politics of deservingness will be central to navigating those debates.

Born to Pay

Born to Pay
Author: Phillip Longman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 328
Release: 1987
Genre: Law
ISBN:

Social Security, Household, and Family Dynamics in Ageing Societies

Social Security, Household, and Family Dynamics in Ageing Societies
Author: Jean-Pierre Gonnot
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9401584419

Many industrialized countries are facing large problems with their public pension systems in the 21st century. An unfavourable age distribution, with lower population shares in working ages and increasing shares and numbers of elderly persons in the future will lead, under current pension systems, to a drop in contributions and at the same time to sharply rising amounts of benefits paid. This book analyzes the impact of dynamics in age structure and marital status composition on future public pension expenditures in twelve industrialized countries. It shows that there is no demographic response to population ageing at the horizon 2030. Neither an increase in fertility nor an inflow of migrants can rejuvenate national populations, unless fertility and/or migration reach unrealistically high levels. Therefore, the overall conclusion of this book is that demographic variables are of limited help to relieve the burden of future public pension expenditures. Substantial reductions of the public pension burden have to be sought in socioeconomic measures, and not in adjusting demographic conditions. The book includes various demographic and pension scenarios for pension costs in the coming decades for Austria, Canada, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden. Not only old age pensions, but also disability and survivor pensions have been investigated. Variant projections were calculated for changes in demographic, labour force, and pension system variables. In addition, separate case studies for three countries deal with: a pension system in Austria in which benefits depend on the number children ever born; the impact of household dynamics on social security in the Netherlands, not just marriage and marriage dissolution; and with the consequences of economic growth for public pensions in Sweden.