Social Security Under the Gun: What Every Informed Citizen Needs to Know About Pension Reform [Hardcover]

Arthur Benavie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2003

The US public has been led to believe that Social Security is going bankrupt and that our children will be burdened with supporting the elderly unless it is reformed. Benavie will refute these arguments. While it is true that our public pension system can be improved, this book will separate the widely accepted economic facts of the issue from personal value judgements. This book is an invaluable guide to understanding and making informed decisions about one of our most important social welfare systems.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reforming Social Security is one of the most important and complex issues facing the country, and one of the most misunderstood. This well-written and well-argued primer should help dispel the myths and misinformation surrounding the debate. Benavie, an economist and author of Deficit Hysteria, casts a skeptical eye on the alarmism about Social Security's eventual bankruptcy, noting that minor adjustments to the system, like small tax increases and benefit reductions or raising the cap on taxable earnings, would make the system solvent for the foreseeable future. He then turns to the two major reform proposals: privatization, which would let individuals place some of their payroll taxes in private investment accounts, and what he calls "diversification," which would let the government invest some of the Social Security trust fund in the stock market. Neither plan is guaranteed to give better returns to retirees than the current system, he argues, and both entail serious risks: privatization would sharply increase administrative costs and put individual retirees at the mercy of the stock market and unscrupulous investment advisers, while diversification would embroil the government in the affairs of private corporations to an unprecedented degree. Benavie gives a lucid account of the dollars-and-cents details underlying the controversy, while arguing that the real issue is not financial, but ideological-whether we wish to abandon the ideals of social solidarity and providing for the poor that are enshrined in the current system in favor of individual autonomy and potentially high returns.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

From a noted economist-author (DeficitHysteria, 1998) comes a reasoned look at Social Security, demystifying a lot of the rumors surrounding this U.S. public pension. Will Social Security be bankrupt soon? Aren't privatization or diversification two plausible panaceas? What have other countries experienced during pension reform? The answers, says the author, are not necessarily cut and dried. Allowing part of the monies to be invested in the stock market, for instance, may just as easily decrease retirement income as increase it. Though Social Security will need additional revenues, perhaps beyond the payroll tax base, it's not likely to go belly-up. Finally, Benavie points out some little-known benefits of this much-maligned system: it's portable, provides automatic protection against inflation, and features low-cost administration. A book to be sent to every member of Congress. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (January 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403961220
• ISBN-13: 978-1403961228
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,291,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A balance objective presentation, March 29, 2008

By 

Chris P. "Chris" (San Francisco Bay Area, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Social Security Under the Gun: What Every Informed Citizen Needs to Know About Pension Reform (Hardcover)

The author does a great job educating the citizen about the myths and truths of socal security. His goal is to present both scenarios and let the reader decide which alternative best suite them. I recommend as a simply presneted bi-partisan coverage of the current debate.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Social Security Under the Gun:, July 5, 2003

By 

Martha Carmichael - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Social Security Under the Gun: What Every Informed Citizen Needs to Know About Pension Reform (Hardcover)

The amazing thing about this little book is that it's such a quick, easy read, and yet I feel I've absorbed so much crucial information about "reforming" Social Security. I started out thinking privatization might be a good idea. By the end I was convinced it would be a disaster. Yet Benavie's tone is calm and non-hysterical, If all economists could write as clearly as he does, it would be a lot easier to keep informed on vital issues like this one.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, concise, objective analysis, June 19, 2003

By 

B. Paul Lindsay - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Social Security Under the Gun: What Every Informed Citizen Needs to Know About Pension Reform (Hardcover)

If you want to understand how social security works, what its problems are, and the major proposals for fixing it, read this book. It is rare to find such a clear and concise analysis of an important public policy issue.
The author explains objectively the alternative proposals for social security reform and their consequences, so readers can decide for themselves. He clarifies issues often muddied by political rhetoric and superficial media converage.
The main text is only 102 pages, with 40 pages of notes, references and index for those who wish to explore further.