Privatizing Social Security (National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report)

From Library Journal
Widespread recent interest in the financial viability of the Social Security system in the 21st century makes this book, edited by Harvard economist Feldstein, timely and important. A massive and dense study, it presents a forceful case for a radical shift from the existing unfunded, pay-as-you-go single national program to a mandatory funded program with individual savings accounts allowing free choice of investments in stocks, bonds, and mortgages. Feldstein argues that not only would such a plan make Social Security financially sound but that it would also stimulate private savings and make labor markets more efficient. An extensive analysis of how a privatized plan would work in the United States is supplemented with the experiences of five other countries that have privatized plans. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.?Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., New YorkCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
This volume represents the most important work to date on one of the pressing policy issues of the moment: the privatization of social security. Although social security is facing enormous fiscal pressure in the face of an aging population, there has been relatively little published on the fundamentals of essential reform through privatization. Privatizing Social Security fills this void by studying the methods and problems involved in shifting from the current system to one based on mandatory saving in individual accounts.

"Timely and important. . . . [Privatizing Social Security] presents a forceful case for a radical shift from the existing unfunded, pay-as-you-go single national program to a mandatory funded program with individual savings accounts. . . . An extensive analysis of how a privatized plan would work in the United States is supplemented with the experiences of five other countries that have privatized plans." --Library Journal

"[A] high-powered collection of essays by top experts in the field."--Timothy Taylor, Public Interest





Card catalog description
Although social security is facing enormous fiscal pressure in the face of an aging population, there has been relatively little published on the fundamentals of essential reform through privatization. Privatizing Social Security fills this void by studying the methods and problems involved in shifting from the current system to one based on mandatory saving in individual accounts. The aging of the population will raise the cost of maintaining the existing pay-as-you-go tax financed system of social security pensions. Government actuaries estimate that the payroll tax rate would have to rise to more than 18 percent to maintain the current relation between benefits and lifetime earnings. To avoid such cost increases, the United States is now considering following the lead of other countries that have shifted from the pay-as-you-go method of financing pensions to systems based on mandatory saving during the working years. This book will be of interest to government policy makers and private pension experts, in addition to economists.


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This volume represents the most important work to date on one of the pressing policy issues of the moment: the privatization of social security. Although social security is facing enormous fiscal pressure in the face of an aging population, there has been relatively little published on the fundamentals of essential reform through privatization. Privatizing Social Security fills this void by studying the methods and problems involved in shifting from the current system to one based on mandatory saving in individual accounts.


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