Social Security and Its Enemies: The Case for America's Most Efficient Insurance Program
- Book Review,
by Max J. Skidmore, Max Skidmore
Amazon.com
"Contrary to popular belief, Social Security is not in danger from retiring baby boomers," writes Max J. Skidmore in this easy-to-read attack on those who would reform the system. Skidmore doesn't even grant that the reformers may have a good cause. They are, he says, motivated by bad intentions: "those who have ideological points to score, and those who have fortunes to be made." In other words, the current fuss over Social Security is the result of a successful propaganda campaign waged by antigovernment conservatives and greedy Wall Street investment companies. Privatizing the system is a sham, says Skidmore, because it doesn't guarantee any kind of result. The stock market may go up, it may go down, but Social Security is always there. This book is not written to persuade, but to motivate; readers who want to see Social Security preserved as a government-run entitlement program for retirees will find themselves cheering every one of Skidmore's thrusts and blows. Those who are more skeptical about the long-term solvency of Social Security or think it's a fundamentally bad deal for young Americans will find themselves frustrated by Social Security and Its Enemies. --John J. Miller
Book Description
Vigorously argues that, despite its enemies, Social Security has remained and can continue to remain a remarkably successful program Most Americans would be astonished to discover that the most efficient insurance program in the world-in the history of the world, in fact-is the United States Social Security system. Yet Americans have been told that Social Security is going bankrupt, that all of its funds will be exhausted in a matter of years. In a Nation as Rich as Ours: Why Social Security Works and Why Its Enemies Are Wrong explains why these widely held beliefs are mistaken, and how it is that much of the public has come to accept them. In a book remarkably free of technical or social science jargon, Max Skidmore demonstrates exactly why Social Security is in no danger of going bankrupt, and proposes a series of incremental adjustments that will allow the system to support future generations even better. In a Nation as Rich as Ours shows that, far from being a system on the verge of collapse, Social Security in fact does exactly what it was created to do: keep America's aged (and later her infirm, disabled, or orphaned) out of poverty without prejudice and with universal access.
About the Author
Max Skidmore is Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and author of many books on social programs and American politics. He was a Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies in India and a Senior Fulbright Scholar in 1994-1995 at the University of Hong Kong.
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