Table Of ContentMORE PRAISE FOR SOCIAL SECURITY WORKS!
“It is about time that facts not propaganda influence public debate about Social
Security. . . . Millennials as well as aging baby boomers have a crucial stake in
preserving the one source of universal financial security. Altman and Kingson
provide a public service in explaining why.” —Fernando Torres-Gil, director,
UCLA Center for Policy Research on Aging and former U.S. Assistant Secretary
on Aging “Social Security Works! shows why expanding Social Security is a top
priority for MoveOn.org’s millions of members.” —Anna Galland, executive
director, MoveOn.org Civic Action
“Social Security Works! is the most important book that any policy maker, voter,
or concerned citizen can read in preparation for November 2016. . . . Social
Security does indeed work. There is no reason to cut benefits—for anyone.
Moreover, as these brilliant authors prove beyond any reasonable doubt, Social
Security will work even better if it is substantially expanded.” —Max J
Skidmore, professor of political science, University of Missouri at Kansas City
and author of Securing America’s Future: A Bold Plan to Preserve and Expand
Social Security
“A spirited defense of our Social Security system. Although they write with
commitment and passion, [Altman and Kingson] take the time to look at the data
in a rigorous manner. The result is a useful work of policy analysis with which
all participants in the Social Security debate will need to reckon.” —Edward D.
Berkowitz, professor of history and public policy, George Washington
University, and author of Mr. Social Security: The Life of Wilbur J. Cohen
“In Social Security Works!, two of our nation’s leading policy experts explain in
a clear and concise fashion how Social Security benefits are calculated, why
Social Security is so important to all Americans, and what can be done to ensure
that it is there for future generations.” —Jill Quadagno, Mildred and Claude
Pepper Eminent Scholar in Social Gerontology, Florida State University, and
author of One Nation, Uninsured
Scholars, policy advisers, and political activists who are nationally known for
their work on Social Security, Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson founded the
not-for-profit organization Social Security Works in 2010 and co-chair the
Strengthen Social Security Coalition, comprised of more than 320 of the nation’s
leading national and state seniors’, union, women’s, disability, civil rights,
netroots, and other organizations. Both served as staff to the 1982 National
Commission on Social Security Reform, the bipartisan commission that forged
the consensus leading to the enactment of the 1983 Amendments to the Social
Security Act. On the organizing committee of the National Academy of Social
Insurance in the mid-1980s, they later served on the academy’s founding board
of directors. Both also served in 2008 on the advisory committee to President
Barack Obama’s Social Security Administration transition team.
Altman, a lawyer, is the author of The Battle for Social Security. A member
of the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government from
1983 to 1989, she also taught courses on private pensions and Social Security at
the Harvard Law School. Currently on the board of the National Academy of
Social Insurance, she also chairs the board of directors of the Pension Rights
Center. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
Kingson, a professor at Syracuse University’s School of Social Work, writes
about the politics and economics of aging. Director of the Emerging Issues in
Aging Program of the Gerontological Society of America in 1984–85, he also
served as senior adviser to the 1994 Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and
Tax Reform. Author of Lessons from Joan: Living and Loving with Cancer, he
lives in Manlius, New York.
David Cay Johnston is an investigative journalist and the winner of a 2001
Pulitzer Prize for uncovering loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code. He is
the president of the 4,900-member Investigative Reporters & Editors and the
author of the bestselling trilogy Perfectly Legal, Free Lunch, and The Fine Print.
He is the editor of Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality (The New
Press). He teaches at Syracuse University College of Law.
ALSO BY NANCY J. ALTMAN
The Battle for Social Security: From FDR’s Vision to Bush’s Gamble
ALSO BY ERIC R. KINGSON
Lessons from Joan: Living and Loving with Cancer, A Husband’s Story
The Generational Equity Debate
(ed. with J.B. Williamson and D. Watts-Roy)
Social Security in the 21st Century (ed. with J.H. Schulz) Social Security and
Medicare: A Policy Primer (with E.D. Berkowitz) Ties That Bind: The
Interdependence of Generations
(with B.A. Hirshorn and J.C. Cornman)
To the late Robert M. Ball (1914–2008), whose enduring legacy continues to
improve the lives of many millions of people every day. Social Security was his
calling. For seven decades, he tirelessly devoted his extraordinary intellectual,
political, organizational, and personal gifts to advancing Social Security, which
he understood to be an instrument of social justice, human dignity, and civility.
© 2015 by Nancy J. Altman and Eric R. Kingson Foreword © 2015 by David Cay Johnston
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher.
Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be mailed to: Permissions
Department, The New Press, 120 Wall Street, 31st floor, New York, NY 10005.
Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2015
Distributed by Perseus Distribution
ISBN 978-1-62097-047-8 (e-book)
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Part One: The Facts
1. The Changing Conversation
2. Social Security Works for All Generations
Part Two: The Challenges
3. The Precarious Lives of Today’s Old
4. The Coming Retirement Income Crisis
5. The Debt Owed to Those Who Care
6. The New Gilded Age
Part Three: The Solution
7. Expand Social Security for All Generations
8. Paying the Bill
Part Four: The Threats
9. The Billionaires’ War Against Social Security
10. The Conventional “Wisdom” Is Just Plain Wrong
Part Five: Next Steps
11. There They Go Again: Why Supporters of Social Security Must Remain
Vigilant
12. Passing Social Security Forward: A Legacy for All Generations
Description:"A growing chorus of prominent voices in Congress and elsewhere are calling for the expansion of our Social Security system-people who know that Social Security will not "go broke" and does not add a penny to the national debt. Social Security Works! will amplify these voices and offer a powerful an
