Making sense of Social Security reform

목차 (Table of Contents)

• CONTENTS
• Acknowledgments = xi
• 1 Introduction = 1
• Decomposition, or, Not Missing the Trees for the Forest = 2
• Integration, or, Not Mistaking the Forest for the Entire Landscape = 5
• Some Principles to Remember = 7
• Road Map for the Rest of the Journey = 8
• 2 The Basic Building Blocks : Social Security Taxes and Benefits = 10
• The Social Security Portion of the Payroll Tax = 10
• Basics of the Social Security Benefit Formula = 12
• The Confusing Relationship between the Tax and Benefit Rules = 19
• Summary = 22
• 3 Social Security as a System of Forced Saving and Limited Portfolio Choice Plus or Minus a Transfer = 24
• Who Pays for What in Social Security? = 25
• A Simple Model of the Social Security System as Forced Saving Plus or Minus a Transfer = 27
• Social Security as Forced Saving = 29
• Social Security as a Redistributive Program = 31
• The Limited Number of Mechanisms for Increasing Social Security Benefits = 32
• Varying or Unclear Interest Rates = 34
• The Risk-Return Frontier = 35
• Risk versus Return in Social Security = 38
• More on Social Security's Financing Risks = 40
• Summary = 42
• 4 Social Security and Social Insurance = 44
• Private Insurance and the Circumstances Where Government Action Extending It May Be Desirable = 44
• Risk-Spreading and Risk Prevention = 47
• Social Insurance and Income Risk = 48
• A Single Comprehensive Insurance Measure? = 53
• Public versus Private Insurance against Income Risk = 54
• The Relevance of Household Status to Social Insurance = 56
• If Social Security Is the Answer, What Is the Question? = 58
• Issues Posed by Households in a Social Security-Type System = 65
• How Well Does the Design of Social Security Fit Its Social Insurance Function? = 66
• Summary = 73
• 5 The Social Security Trust Fund : The Economics of Funding and the Politics of Accounting = 76
• The Relevance of Funding for Private versus Public Retirement Plans = 77
• Evaluating the Funding of Different Types of Retirement Plans = 82
• Actual Social Security as Approximately a Defined-Benefit Plan = 85
• Is the Social Security Trust Fund a "Fraud"? = 88
• Is There a "Right" Way to Measure the Social Security Trust Fund? = 90
• Prominently Discussed Methods(Apart from Tax and Benefit Changes) for Augmenting the Social Security Trust Fund = 93
• Summary = 98
• 6 Traditionalist Social Security Reform Proposals = 101
• Significance of the Current System's "Fundamental Character" = 101
• Proposed Tax and Benefit Changes = 105
• Improving the Spousal Rules within Traditional Social Security = 110
• Investing a Portion of the Trust Fund in the Stock Market = 113
• Summary = 123
• 7 Proposals to " Privatize" Social Security = 126
• What Does " Privatization" Mean? = 126
• Money Machines and "Transition Path" Problem = 129
• The Bookkeeping Shift from a Trust Fund to Individual Accounts = 132
• Increasing National Saving through Full Funding = 135
• Privatization and Portfolio Choice = 137
• Administrative Privatization = 140
• Eliminating Social Security's Transfer Content = 142
• Spousal and Household Issues in Privatization = 143
• Summary = 144
• 8 A Modest Proposal : Progressive Privatization = 146
• Service with a Smile = 146
• Main conclusions concerning Social Security Reform = 147
• A Modest Proposal at Last = 152
• The "Transition Path" Problem, or, Getting There from Here = 156
• A Final Word on Social Security Reform = 157
• Notes = 159
• Bibliography = 167
• Index = 173