Followup on "Social Security Reform: When will it come?"
Following up on Allen Seward's posting entitled "Social Security Reform: When will it come?", there are a couple of Social Security-related articles appearing in the blogosphere which are definitely worth a read. For starters, check out Alex Tabarrok's posting on marginalrevolution.com entitled "The Social Security Inversion". The basic premise of this article is that current (and past) retirees have gotten the best deal from Social Security; indeed, many of them did far better than they could have done in any other investment (Tabarrok cites the (spectacular) example of the first known Social Security recipent, Ida May Fuller, who received a nominal payoff equal to 925 times her total contribution into the system). Unfortunately (as both Seward and Tabarrok point out), for today's workers and their children, Social Security (as it is currently configured) is a raw deal; even if the Social Security system does not become insolvent, current workers will receive a very poor return on their "investment".
The second article appears in yesterday's online version of the Wall Street Journal. Entitled "Social Security: What's Next", this article provides both liberal and conservative views concerning reforming the Social Security system.