Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach

Product Description

While everyone agrees that Social Security is a vital and necessary government program, there have been widely divergent plans for reforming it. Peter A. Diamond and Peter R. Orszag, two of the nation's foremost economists, propose a reform plan that would rescue the program both from its projected financial problems and from those who would destroy the program in order to save it. Since the publication of the first edition of this book in 2004, the Social Security debate has moved to the center of the domestic policy agenda. In this updated edition of Saving Social Security, the authors analyze the Bush Administration's proposal for individual accounts and discuss the so-called "price indexing" proposal to restore long-term solvency through changing how initial benefits would be calculated. Saving Social Security is essential reading for policymakers involved in reform, analysts, students, and all those interested in the fate of this safeguard of American lives.

Customer Reviews:

Should we keep Social Security limping along?.......2005-02-24

The authors do a passable job of explaining how Social Security has gotten to where it is.

Unfortunately, they never discuss what Social Security is.

Social Security is an intergenerational welfare program. Money is taken from the young, and given to retirees.

We can "Save Social Security" - by increasing taxes, reducing benefits, and using all sorts of accounting tricks.

But should we?

Retirees are living in comfort - while young people are being paid less and are struggling to survive.

Retirees have health insurance - while young people are likely to have none.

Social Security has lasted as long as it has because people saw it as a good deal - you got more out of it than you paid in.

Young people know that this is no longer true. They see no armies of children to support them in their old age. To pay for their retirement and medical costs.

What the authors suggest is that we continue to force young people to pay for retirees to live in comfort and health.

This means that young people will be forced to work until they drop. Every moment of their lives, they will live in fear that a medical emergency will drop them into the financial abyss.

And they will see retirees living in comfort and health - taking vacations, clogging the roads with their RV's.

This doesn't sound fair to me - or to the young people under 45 I talk to.

Does it sound fair to you?

Peter Simmons Author - The Next Crash

Only Balanced on the High End.......2005-01-04

First, the good things. This text gives a general understanding of how the 75-year projection has gone from on-balance in 1983 to off-balance in 2003, it provides many examples of possible errors in the system, and it gives good recommendations to the current system to enhance the ability of Social Security to remain in balance once it has been restored, namely things like adjusting retiree benefits for changes in expected life span over and above projected changes and including a universal legacy charge which does not eliminate the legacy cost but, rather, creates a stable legacy cost over time such that the cost of the system is being borne by all rather than only one generation (ours!). These earn the book 4 stars.

The authors state in chapter 3 their five goals for Social Security reform: "restor[e] Social Security to a sound financial footing, reduc[e] the future burden from Social Security on the rest of the Federal Budget, shar[e] the ongoing costs of the program's past generosity in a fair manner, preserv[e] and strenghten the program's social insurnace function,s and ensur[e] that, on balance, the changes enhance the overall performance of the economy." Given that the current 75-year projection by the Office of the Chief Actuary now shows a 1.9% of payroll imbalance, the authors contend that this imbalance should be corrected by not just revenue increases (higher payroll taxes, new estate taxes, or a non-renewal of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts) or benefit reductions, but both. In fact, this is the type of balance they propose - that all parties should share in the costs of the system equally. This "all parties" mentality leads them to include those state and local government workers currently not covered by the program, but conveniently (or maybe politically correctly) leads them to EXCLUDE all current retirees and near-retirees (those retiring in the next 10 years or so). The "all parties" mentality also belies their obvious disdain for the higher-earning cohorts of the country, in that many of the balance reforms do not balance reductions in benefits across all earnings groups with tax increases across those same groups, but mostly balances the increased revenue from taxing higher-wage earners more with decreasing benefits to those same high-wage earners through incrasing the "progressivity" of benefits. Such inconsistency in comparing apples to apples (for example, continually discussing the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and options to reinstate those taxes as revenues dedicated to Social Security, when in fact these tax cuts are outside the scope of Social Security, and should have stayed there throughout the whole text) as the authors like to say they are doing causes them to lose 2 stars.

Overall, this book provides both positive analysis and negative inclusion of meaningless comparison. It is good for background to understand what the dilemma is truly about, but their whole package will probably not be, and should not be, implemented, though certain specific parts are appropriate.

A highly recommended ray of hope.......2004-07-17

Written by the chair of the board of the National Academy of Social Insurance and a former special assistant to the president for economic policy during the Clinton administration, Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach Proposes a reform plan for America's social security system that would save it from both its financial problems and those who would do away with it. Focusing on means that promote long-term balance and sustainable solvency, while protecting the program's benefits for the disabled, low earners, widows, and young survivors. Exhaustively researched and deeply entrenched in practical issues and mathematical calculations, Saving Social Security is a highly recommended ray of hope against a looming national crisis.

Book Description

Lawyer, activist, teacher, writer: for over forty years, Derrick Bell has provoked his critics and challenged his readers with uncompromising candor and progressive views on race and class in America. A founder of Critical Race Theory and pioneer of the use of allegorical stories as tools of analysis, Bell's extraordinary work shatters conventional legal orthodoxies and turns comfortable majoritarian myths inside out. While his writing spans several decades and addresses a myriad of topics, it has never been collected in a single volume until now.

Edited with an extensive introduction by leading critical race theorists Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, The Derrick Bell Reader consists of fifteen thematic chapters that reflect the tremendous breadth of issues that Bell has grappled with over his phenomenal career, including affirmative action, black nationalism, and legal education and ethics. Some pieces are written in elegant expository prose, such as meditations on the impact of the Brown v. Board of Education decision; others in the narrative form for which Bell is famous, particularly his signature Geneva Crenshaw chronicles. The book also includes never before published material by Bell, including poetry and the startling letter of resignation he submitted to the dean of Harvard Law School in protest of the lack of women of color on the faculty. Together, the selections offer the most complete collection of Derrick Bell's writing available today.

Book Description

This volume describes and analyses aspects of economic development in Australia and its effect on the nation's cities and regions. Some of the topics discussed include the arrival of new technologies, structural adjustment, deregulation, population shifts, and the variations of households.
The authors show how the nation's economic geography is being shaped by a range of processes that are leading to the uneven distribution of both people and jobs.

Customer Reviews:

insufficient emphasis on minerals-led export boom.......2007-02-10

The authors offer a good discussion of the many factors that affect Australia's economy, and how these might change various aspects of the nation. Globalisation is one major topic. Where the increasingly cheap cost of communications (phone and Internet) means that offshoring is a real possibility. Here, offshoring is studied where local workers might be replaced by those in countries with cheaper but equally skilled workforces. Think perhaps India, China and Philippines. But another aspect is where other developed countries might offshore jobs to Australia. The developed nature of Australia, and a strong intellectual property protection means that places like the US could migrate skilled research to Australia.

The relative changes of population distribution in Australia are also looked into. One discussion is actually quite traditional, in the Australian context. That of Sydney compared to Melbourne. Playing off a century-long cultural and economic rivalry between the two cities. Both are scrutinised quite well. For example, in 1981, I visited Sydney's affluent North Shore, which has many beautiful homes and gardens. But in the intervening years, the North Shore now also embeds a host of small high tech startups, which could bode well for future growth.

However, with the benefit of just a few years hindsight, the book did not pay as much attention to the effect of an extended resource boom; mostly in minerals instead of agriculture. Protracted global demand for minerals that Australia has in abundance led to Western Australia, Queensland and Northern Terrority doing very well, as the minerals have tended to be located there. This caused those states to grow much faster than the others, in population and per capita income. As well as make Perth have the second most expensive housing in Australia, just behind Sydney. Which by historical standards is pretty amazing to any Australian owning residential real estate.

In 2001-2, when the book was written, these trends were already well underway. But perhaps few people anywhere anticipated the extent to which they would continue, and the concomitant demographic effects. To an American reader, perhaps the best analogy would be the greater growth of California, Texas and Florida, compared to the MidWest and the US east coast, after World War 2.

The book's comprehensive consideration of many factors is still worthy reading. At some point the mineral boom will plateau or decline. Mining is notoriously cyclical. And these other factors could then become more prominent.

Customer Reviews:

Choice.......2006-06-27

Handbook of markets and economies: East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand. ed. by Anthony Pecotich and Clifford J. Shultz II. M.E. Sharpe, 2006. 712p bibl index afp ISBN 0-7656-0972-X, $139.95 . Reviewed in 2006jun CHOICE. * More from M.E. Sharpe *
Particularly over the last few decades, significant economic and social progress has increased the importance of Asian markets and economies relative to other regions of the world. Although progress has been somewhat erratic and has not affected all nations to the same degree, some observers see the possibility of a gradual shift in power from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The upward struggles of Asian economies, including Australia and New Zealand, as well as their potential for further development, are captured in this work, which draws the expert insights of 39 contributors into a single volume via the editing of Pecotich (Univ. of Western Australia) and Shultz (Arizona State Univ.). The challenging task of instilling coherence into disparate contributions was aided by utilizing a common framework of eight systems in examining each country: natural environment/geography, political, economic, social, knowledge, educational, executive, and marketing. The framework was employed, as circumstances permitted, as a guide through the 18 chapters, each covering a single country in the region. Chapters contain extensive references, and statistical data were condensed into tables where appropriate. Those seeking marketing, economic, and cultural information relative to Pacific nations will find this handbook a convenient and accessible resource. Summing Up: Recommended. Public, academic (lower-division undergraduate and up), and professional collections. -- W. C. Struning, emeritus, Seton Hall University

Average customer rating:

Handbook Of Markets And Economies East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand
II Clifford J. Shultz
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N7ERJA

Average customer rating:

hmmmm

What a joke!

Not very good

Common Sense approach - With Resource

Bang For Your Buck

Sex Sells : How to Build an Adult Website
AMD Inc. , and Inc. AMD
Manufacturer: Advanced Multimedia Designs Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Plastic Comb

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
General | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0965917029

Book Description

Sex Sells: How to Build an Adult Website is a complete and concise, step-by-step guide to creating an adult website. You need no prior knowledge of web design, art, the adult industry, or the Internet itself. We explain each step to you. So if you have the desire to succeed and you know how to read, you have the potential to earn thousands or more per month in the adult website business.

Customer Reviews:

hmmmm.......2003-11-30

well, i was hoping for some REAL information on the subject. i would think that anyone who buys this book would already know most of the stuff inside... i sure did so it didnt help me at all. maybe the millions of pages with links will be useful to me.
the 10 step recap for the book is to create a company (no duh), get a business license, get a po box, get a business bank account, get a merchant account, get an internet merchant account, find a company to host your domain, buy a domain, create a website, and then stock your website with content!! hmmm! thanks, bro, i didnt already know that!!!!
this book will be helpful to the person who has never used the internet, never built a webpage, and just heard from someone who heard from someone else that you can make TONS of money if your husband takes naked pictures of you in the kitchen.

What a joke!.......2002-11-05

For the more savvy individual with a little expirience:
I felt like I had been taken by one of those "Ronco-Matic" 30 second infomercials. This spiral bound piece of literature (and I use that term lightly.) is a total waste of time and money. Every thing in this 54 page [...] leads up to a sales pitch to get your email address and more useless [...]. (Inside back cover.) Don't waste your money or your time.. you could better spend it online doing your own homework.

For the Novice:
To be fair though, being a savvy surfer, and somewhat familiar with the industry, I can say for a total novice.. well.. it's a start, but a weak one at that!

Not very good.......2002-03-28

This is a 36-page spiral bound booklet with 8 pages of links. I was hoping this would be a how to start an adult site book but it really isn't. The only people who might find this booklet a little useful are those who don't have any experience with the Internet. Most of the information here could easily be found on [the internet]... The areas it addresses are just vague common sense information. For example it refers you to your state's "department of incorporation" on how to form a company. I've checked a few of the links on their resources guide and I guess that's a little helpful but again doing a search on [the internet] for Adult web hosting or adult content would have generated the same links ... If you want a typed out link page I guess you would like this but for me it's not worth the [money], I paid for this booklet. Save your money do your own search.

Common Sense approach - With Resource.......2002-01-31

This flimsy little work (60 pages) spends a lot of time going over COMMON SENSE details you would use to approach any project. They also spend a lot of time flogging an Adult Resource Guide they sell for [price]. They include this list of URLs in the back of the book.

Almost of the of the details, thoughts and suggestions they make are easily found on the web on various "Newbie" websites and even some content/sponsor websites.

I would not recommend this for anyone who has already started working on a site/sites. It would be OK for someone who is literally just starting on an idea. At the "I wonder..." stage.

Bang For Your Buck.......2001-06-26

Right away this little book cut to the chase and dished up some useful information. Granted it's not War And Peace, but I don't think it's meant to be an epic novel. Rather it's supposed to be a resource guide into the adult industry on the Internet. I knew next to nothing about that business before reading it, now I've got a firm grip (no pun intended) on the basics. As for the Adult Resource Guide ad in the back; I read a lot of tech books, from BMG, Sybex and Wiley just to name a few, and in the back of most of these books you will find some sort of ad for further reading materials from the respective publisher. Also I did some checking into the type of lists contained in this "Adult Resource Guide". I found that to buy a list similar to one found in the guide, you would pay about $200. All in all I found the book to be informative, slightly entertaining, and well worth the nominal fee of [$].

Customer Reviews:

Customer Action.......2000-05-03

Dr. Johnson presents an insightful primer of consumer behavior, and how the manager can best serve the customer. By using the information contained within the book, one can better understand the myriad of factors that drive consumer behavior, and the market's reaction to them.

Book Description

A leading team of experts in the field examines how phenomena associated with globalization impact on political economy in theory and in practice. The volume employs a variety of theoretical and analytical approaches to examine the very changeable nature of the global political economy, in terms of academic analysis, policy, and practice.

Book Description

The economic and structural changes in the transition countries since the break up of the Soviet Union have been unique and profound. This book explores how the labor markets of the Central and Eastern European transition countries, the Baltic States, and the Russian Federation have developed in response to this and to the new challenge of accession to the European Union.

Through cross-country analysis, the volume examines the sectoral structure of employment as well as the changes in its major characteristics, such as employment status, type of labour contract, formal/informal employment and others. The strictness of employment protection legislation is also explored, and this study evaluates its effect on the level and structure of employment and unemployment both for selected transition countries and Western industrialized countries. In addition, the developments in labour market institutions, labour market policies, collective bargaining and labour taxation in ten transition countries are compared with selected OECD countries presending a clear, overall policy picture.

The book offers convincing policy recommendations for the better management of labour market changes from an economic and social point of view, while keeping in mind the overarching long-term goal of achieving full, productive and fully chosen employment at the global, regional, national and local levels.

Book Description

Since 1991, the Lithuanian Government has instituted a number of reforms which led to an increase in the level of foreign investment. The Investment Guide for Lithuania has been prepared with three objectives in mind : firstly, to identify those areas of economic activity which present opportunities for foreign investors; secondly, to provide the investor with comprehensive information relating to the historical, political, economic, financial and legal framework essential for sound and secured foreign investment; thirdly, to draw on the experiences of the foreign investors in Lithuania, and to assess the business, investment and regulatory environment.

Lithuania Internet And E-commerce Industry Investment And Business Guide (World Business, Investment and Government Library)

Average customer rating:

Lithuania Internet And E-commerce Industry Investment And Business Guide (World Business, Investment and Government Library)
USA International Business Publications
Manufacturer: Intl Business Pubns USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Exports & Imports | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Web Marketing | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Lithuania Investment & Business Guide
Emerging Markets Investment Center
Manufacturer: International Business Publications, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0739702955

Book Description

This investment guide contains basic information on economy, business, export-import and investment climate, opportunities, regulations. Provides strategic information on economy, industrial development, banking, and government. Includes information on the most important business contacts and business travel. Updated annually.

Lithuania Investment & Business Guide (World Investment and Business Library)

Average customer rating:

Lithuania Investment & Business Guide (World Investment and Business Library)
USA International Business Publications
Manufacturer: International Business Publications, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0739717979

Book Description

This investment guide contains basic information on economy, business, export-import and investment climate, opportunities and regulations. Provides strategic information on economy, industrial development, banking, and government. Includes information on the most important business contacts and business travel. Updated annually.

Lithuania Mineral & Mining Sector Investment And Business Guide (World Business, Investment and Government Library)

Average customer rating:

Lithuania Mineral & Mining Sector Investment And Business Guide (World Business, Investment and Government Library)
USA International Business Publications
Manufacturer: Intl Business Pubns USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Exports & Imports | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | International | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0739751042

Lithuania: A Spy Guide (World Investment and Business Guide Library)

Average customer rating:

Lithuania: A Spy Guide (World Investment and Business Guide Library)

Manufacturer: Intl Business Pubns USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0739785370

Book Description

Everything a successful "spy" must know on the country. Strategic and practical information on government, national security, army, foreign relations, economy, technology, mineral resources, as well as culture, history, traditions, government and business contacts and more...

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