The Future of Social Security

The future of Social Security will be among the top issues in the 2016 presidential election. Ferrara, who has been writing about Social Security since the 1980s, thinks the time for reform is fast approaching: Under what the government’s actuaries call “intermediate” economic assumptions, the [Social Security] trust funds will be able to [pay promised benefits] until 2033. After that, paying all promised Social Security benefits will require increasing the payroll tax by 50%. Under what the government’s actuaries call “pessimistic” economic assumptions, the Social Security trust funds will run out of money to pay promised benefits by 2029. After that, paying all benefits promised to today’s young workers will require doubling the current payroll-tax rate.