Social Security

Summary

The paper would concentrate on the US Old-Age Insurance program with side comments on the survivors, disability, and medicare programs. The thrust of the paper would be that the fundamentals of the current system were well thought out before the programs were enacted, that the system has served well, that the current attention to "fix" the program is unnecessary and perhaps politically rather than logically motivated, and that suggestions to change the program to an individual investment accumulation would both do violence to some fundamental goals and possibly not lead the expected results of the proponents. It is possible that these thoughts would be of interest to actuaries from other countries who are helping to design social programs for their country.

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