Social Security: A Critical Benefit for Workers and Their Families.
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“The best insurance for Social Security is full employment — jobs for all at decent pay.” NJFAC
“Social Security is not “underfunded.” It is not, in fact, possible to pre-fund Social Security. Tomorrow’s Social Security will be paid by tomorrow’s workers, out of tomorrow’s national product, according to benefit schedules set by law at that time. Those trust funds are just an accounting device, wipe them out and nothing would happen; today’s surpluses are just as irrelevant, in economic terms, as tomorrow’s deficits. Regressive payroll taxes today buy jet fighters and aircraft carriers. It would not be a bad thing if, twenty years from now, some progressive income taxes were used to pay for pensions.” NJFAC Advisory Board member James K. Galbraith, “I Don’t Want to Talk About It,” Texas Observer, April 15, 1998
“[Congressman Paul] Ryan asked [then-Fed Chairman Alan] Greenspan if there was a way to ensure the solvency of Social Security through the use of personal retirement accounts. Greenspan’s response was eye-opening. He told Ryan, “There’s nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants and paying it to someone.” He goes on to add that the real question is whether there is a system in place to ensure that the real assets are there for the benefits (money) to purchase.” Watch the exchange here.
“Social security is a job when you can work and an income when you can’t.” William Beveridge, [1943] cited by Robert M. Ball, Social Security Today and Tomorrow. Ball was Commissioner of Social Security under three Presidents.
“To be certain of a regular income, as in the case of social security, is not the same thing as to be able to repair any damage, or to meet any emergency.” Poet Wallace Stevens, justifying SS to his coworkers at the Hartford Fire and Indemnity Company in 1937. Opus Posthumous, rev. ed., 233.
- Social Security Trustees Reports Actuarial Status of the Social Security Trust Funds, 3/23
- Save Social Security from Its “Saviors,” S. Kelton, 7/22
- The Social Security Scare Story Industry, Baker CEPR 4/23
- What FDR and Two Former Fed Chairs Understood About Social Security: It ain’t about the money. S. Kelton, 6/22
- The 2023 Trustees Report Shows that Social Security Remains Strong, Despite Republican Attacks , Benesch SSW 3/23
- What the 2023 Trustees’ Report Shows About Social Security, Romig CBPP 6/22
- Social Security Lifts More People Above the Poverty Line Than Any Other Program, CBPP 6/23
- SSI’s 50th Anniversary Highlights Need for Reform Following Decades of Stagnation, CBPP 10/22
- 2021 Social Security Loss of Buying Power Study, Johnson, Senior Citizen League, 5/21
- Social Security: Long May It Wave, Sawicky, CEPR 9/21
- Benefit Calculator: SSA
- The Impact of Upward Redistribution on Social Security Solvency, (2020 Update), Brown and Baker
- Time to Increase SS Benefits for Low and Moderate Wage Workers, Baker, CEPR 2/19
- Fast Facts & Figures About Social Security, 2023, SSA 8/23
- Facts about Social Security 2019, NJFAC, 8/19
- OASDI and SSI Program Rates & Limits, 2020, 10/19
- Congressional Statistics, 2021, SSA 5/22
- SSI Annual Statistical Rport, 2020 10/21
- Earnings of Men Aged 20–59, 1989–2019 5/22 Earnings of Women Aged 20-59, 1989-2019 5/22
- SSI Recipients by State and County, 2021, 12/22
- Social Security Programs Throughout the World
- Annual Statistical Supplement, 2022, SSA 12/22
- Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2020, 11/21
- Earnings and Employment Data for Workers Covered Under Social Security and Medicare, by State and County, 2021 SSA 10/23
- Social Security Chartbooks, Income, Expenditures, Facts SSA
- OASDI Beneficiaries by State and ZIP Code, 2021 11/22
- OASDI Beneficiaries by State and County, 2021, 11/22
- Retirement in America | Out of Reach for Most Americans? Oakley, Brown, & Saad-Lessle, NIRS 9/18
- Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society, Thorne et al, SSRN 8/18
- Disability applications plunge as the economy strengthens, Schwartz, CNBC 6/18
- Diverting Class Warfare Into Generational Warfare, Baker, CEPR 1/18
- Welfare for Wall Street: Fees on Retirement Accounts, Baker, CEPR 9/17
- Social Security: Still The Most Efficient Way To Provide Retirement Income:…minimize the money that is wasted in fees for the financial industry. Baker, Huffington 8/17
- Who Is Finished Paying Their 2017 Social Security Taxes? Probably Not You. Ghilarducci & Pavlakis Huffington 1/17
- Student Loan Crisis Increasingly Snares Seniors’ Social Security Benefits, Scofield, Naked Capitalism,
- Income of the Population 55 or Older, 2014, SSA, 4/16
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GOP Plans to Gut Social Security, Crawford, 12/16 - With Pensions Like This, Chileans Lash Out at System [once praised in US], Bonnefoy, NYT 9/16
- Expand Social Security, Eliminate 401k’s, Mathbabe 8/16
- The Truth About Social Security’s Solvency And You, Farrell, Forbes 6/16
- Social Security at 80: Expanded But Still Missing the Keystone (Employment Assurance), Trudy Goldberg, 8/15
- Mr. Moneybags Gets More Out of Social Security, Irwin, NYT 4/16
- “The current Social Security tax base … has been shrinking relative to the economy … for the past 30 years.” T. Hungerford, Quoted by Hiltzik, LA Times
- Rising Disability Payments: Are Cuts to Workers’ Compensation Part of the Story? 11/15
- The Implications of Differential Trends in Mortality for Social Security Policy, Bound et al, 2014
- Americans Make Hard Choices on Social Security, Prefer to Raise Payroll Taxes and Increase Benefits 1/13
- Importance of SS in the Incomes of Older Americans, IWPR 8/13
- Social Security Cannot Go Bankrupt, Harvey, Forbes 8/14
- Who Would Pay More if the SS Payroll Tax Cap Were Raised or Scrapped? Woo et al, CEPR 1/15
- Social Security and Medicare are in Great Shape & We Can Expand Them Now 7/14
- Social Security flyers No Crisis Private Accounts
- Una Prueba: ¿Que Le Ofrece El Seguro Social A Las Personas Jones
- Social Security: What’s In It for Younger People NJFAC Quiz
- NJFAC Social Security Packet and links
- The Impact of Social Security Cuts on Retiree Income, Baker & Rosnick, 7/10
- Bad News on Social Security: We’re Going to Live Longer, Baker, 1/13
- Impact of Cutting Social Security Cost of Living Adjustments on the Living Standards of the Elderly. Baker & Rosnick CEPR 9/11
- The Myth of Early Retirement, EPI 11/11
- Young Person’s Guide to Social Security, NASI, 7/12
- Women and Social Security: Key Facts, NWLC. 4/14
- Social Security: Especially Vital to Women and People of Color, Men Increasingly Reliant, 1/11
- Action on Social Security: The Urgent Need for Delay, Baker, CEPR 11/10
- Why Is It So Acceptable to Lie to Cut Social Security Benefits?, Baker 10/10
- Saving Social Security From Its Previous Rescue: The multi-trillion surplus that must never, ever be used, Naureckas, FAIR
- Social Security COLA Cut: A Benefit Cut Affecting Everyone
- Social Security and the Federal Deficit, Ballantyne et al, EPI, 8/10
- Top Ten Reasons Not to Raise the Retirement Age, Eisenbrey, EPI 8/10
- Medicare and Medicaid are NOT like Social Security, Anrig, TCF 6/10
- The New War on Social Security, Dean Baker, 4/10
- Does Congress Want to Default on the National Debt?, Baker, 1/10
- Why SS Trust Fund Balances Grow in a Time of Recession, Webb, 1/10
- The Future Financial Status of the Social Security Program, Goss, SSB 2010
- Working the graveyard shift: Why raising the Social Security retirement age is not the answer, Morrissey & Garr, EPI 5/09
- Kicking retirees when they’re down The Wall Street crew want to cut Social Security and Medicare at a time when US workers need help the most, Baker 1/09
- Memo on American Academy of Actuaries Statement on the Social Security Retirement Age, Langer, 8/08
- The Impact of the Housing Crash on Family Wealth. CEPR, 7/08
- How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security, R. Blackburn,10/04
- Reality vs Intermediate Cost vs Low Cost, Webb, 3/08
- Social Security: Still Alive and Kicking, Wasow, TCF 3/08
- The Social Security Scare Squad: Reason to Hate the Media No. 567,945. D. Baker
- Social Security shortfalls are suspect, D. R. Francis, CSM
- Social Security’s 70th Anniversary: Surviving 20 Years of Reform, Wray, 6/05
- Wall Street’s Real Stake In Social Security Privatization, Max
- Social Security provides the primary life insurance protection for most children
- Social Security Q & A
- Top Ten Facts on Social Security’s 70th Anniversary 8/05
- Four Questions and Answers about the Social Security Trust Funds, the National Debt, and Sound Fiscal Policy TCF, 7/05
- Privatized Social Security, D.R. Francis, CSM 6/27/05
- Many already lack a steady job before the Social Security retirement age 6/05
- Hispanics Large Stake in the Social Security Debate 6/05
- Productivity growth and Social Security’s future, Spriggs & Price, EPI 5/05
- Administration’s Point Man on Social Security, DeLong 3/05
- The Parent Trap, James Galbraith
Retirement Income: The Crucial Role of Social Security, Weller & Wolff - African Americans and Social Security: Why the Privatization Advocates Are Wrong, Wm. Spriggs
- Social Security Q&A: Separating Fact from Fiction, Orr Dollars and Sense, 2005
- Social Security Revisited, Doug Henwood, Left Business Observer
- Solvency and the Long Bond: Economic Life after Crisis
- Social Security: The Most Important Anti-Poverty Program for Children
- 12 Reasons Why Privatizing Social Security Is a Bad Idea, Anrig & Wasow, TCF
- Beating the Boomers: Why Bush and Co. are racing to cut Social Security, By Dave Lindorff
- Why Privatizing Social Security Would Weaken Our Republic, Benjamin Barber
- The Burden of Social Security Taxes and the Burden of Wage Inequality
- Achieving a Leninist Strategy, 1983
- David Langer’s publications on Social security–an actuarial perspective
- Saving Social Security? David Langer
- Cooking Social Security’s ‘deficit’ David Langer
- Academy agrees Trustees’ assumptions were inconsistent. News release from David Langer
- Don’t Privatize Social Security–AFL-CIO
- Retirement Security–Century Fund
- Social Security’s Finances Are in Fine Shape, by David Langer, Consulting Actuary. Remarks at a Congressional conference to fight Social Security privatization, 1/99
- Inconsistent Economic Assumptions Used by Social Security Actuaries Favored Privatization Proposals, Langer 9/99
- Social Security Actuaries’ Changes In Methods And Assumptions, 1979-1998, by David Langer
- Social Security: Can the Trustees Be Trusted? By Mark Weisbrot
- Social Security: Don’t Just Fix the Symptom; Solve the Problem, Pat Conover, United Church of Christ
- Three New Papers on “Privatizing” Social Security, One Conclusion: Bad Idea, John Mueller, Sr VP & Chief Economist, Lehrman Bell Mueller Cannon, Inc. The National Press Club, October 14, 1997
- Social Security: The Phony Crisis, by Helen Lachs Ginsburg: Legislative Testimony