National Debt Part III: Radical Reform of Social Security

Radical Reform of Social Security requires starting at the root, and that root is its real purpose and goals today, in 2010. What are we really trying to accomplish with this program? What are the basic problems for which we should supply social safety nets, and how do we best supply and sustain them?

2010 is more like the 1935 of Social Security’s birth during the Great Depression than any other time in American history so far. It is a time of Great Recession, when macroeconomic events have created new poverty and exacerbated old. Unemployment has destroyed wage income, and plummeting stock markets have devastated savings from ...

Addressing National Debt by Reforming Social Security

FDR Signing Social Security Act August 14, 1935

Government deficits and debt have reached alarming levels today, and the unfunded liabilities of tomorrow are even more staggering. The key to attaining fiscal sobriety is entitlement reform, and Social Security is as good a place to start as any.

Established in 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression, Social Security was FDR’s strong response to the difficulties experienced by the elderly, ...