Can Social Security survive?
Two Social Security-related questions seem to be on many minds these days: Will the program still be around when I retire? And will I get everything I have coming from it? Nobody knows for sure, of course, but allow me to venture a couple of educated guesses, based on talking with experts and plowing through a pile of recent academic papers. To the first question: Probably. To the second one: Maybe, but I wouldn’t bet my retirement on it. There’s no denying that the Social Security system has some problems, chief among them its ability to take in enough money to meet its future obligations. By the year 2041 payroll taxes will be sufficient to cover only 78 percent of promised benefits, according to the most recent report from the program’s trustees. Nonetheless, I’ve not heard a single credible expert propose that the U.S. do away with the system. Even privatizing it, the next worst thing in the opinion of many of us, seems far off the table these days. So I think we can reasonably ass
