Social Security

Going for Broke: Deficits, Debt, and the Entitlement Crisis

The looming financial meltdown may be far worse than anyone expects.

The Pros and Cons of a Guaranteed National Income

What sounds good in theory tends to break down when one looks at implementation.

SSDI Reform: Promoting Gainful Employment while Preserving Economic Security

Shifting benefits at the margin toward paying beneficiaries to work rather than to remain out of the work force would encourage beneficiaries with residual work capacities to return to work.

Experts

Subtopics

Commentary

Social Security’s 80th Anniversary Is No Cause for Celebration

Michael D. Tanner in National Review (Online)

It is probably worth injecting a few inconvenient truths into the Social Security debate - or at least debunking the most common untruths.

Horse and Buggy Program in the Age of the Internet

Michael D. Tanner in Asbury Park Press

Let young workers who wish to get out of this pyramid scheme do so, and save a portion of their taxes for their own retirement through personal accounts.

Think Greece Can’t Happen Here? You’re Wrong

Michael D. Tanner in New York Post (Online)

The danger for the United States is that spending on entitlements will surge in the coming decades.

Chris Christie Takes on Entitlements

Michael D. Tanner in Real Clear Policy

If it forces other candidates to address the issue, he will have already done the country an enormous favor.

Medicare and Social Security Tabs Coming Due

Michael D. Tanner in Reason

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid alone account for 47 percent of federal spending today, a portion that will only grow larger in the future.

Social Security Isn’t Going Away — But It Is Going to Get Worse

Michael D. Tanner in Vice News

To pay all the benefits promised in the future, Social Security would have to increase the payroll tax by as much as half, or slash benefits by 23 percent.

Multimedia

Michael D. Tanner discusses social security on CBS Radio

August 14, 2015

Going for Broke: Deficits, Debt, and the Entitlement Crisis

August 20, 2013

Rising Costs of Social Security Disability

June 19, 2013

Disability Insurance: The New Welfare?

October 10, 2012

Europe’s Crisis and the Welfare State: Lessons for the United States

Cato Studies

SSDI Reform: Promoting Gainful Employment while Preserving Economic Security

By Jagadeesh Gokhale. Policy Analysis No. 762. October 22, 2014.

The Rising Cost of Social Security Disability Insurance

By Tad DeHaven. Policy Analysis No. 733. August 6, 2013.

Spending Beyond Our Means: How We Are Bankrupting Future Generations

By Jagadeesh Gokhale. White Paper . February 13, 2013.

Still a Better Deal: Private Investment vs. Social Security

By Michael D. Tanner. Policy Analysis No. 692. February 13, 2012.

Of Special Note

American leaders have cooperated with regimes around the world that are, to varying degrees, repressive or corrupt. Such cooperation is said to serve the national interest. But these partnerships also contravene the nation’s commitments to democratic governance, civil liberties, and free markets.

In Perilous Partners, authors Ted Galen Carpenter and Malou Innocent provide a strategy for resolving the ethical dilemmas between interests and values faced by Washington.

Purchase your copy today

Special! 10 Copies for $10

Cato Pocket Constitution

To encourage people everywhere to better understand and appreciate the principles of government that are set forth in America’s founding documents, the Cato Institute published this pocket-size edition.

Now Available

The Libertarian Mind Audiobook

The Libertarian Mind, by David Boaz, longtime executive vice president of the Cato Institute, is the best available guide to the history, ideas, and growth of libertarianism, and is the ultimate resource for the current, burgeoning libertarian movement. This acclaimed book is now available as a fully unabridged audiobook, ready for immediate downloading, on Audible.com.

Lukewarming: The New Climate Science that Changes Everything

In Lukewarming: The New Climate Science that Changes Everything, two environmental scientists with over a half century of experience between them explain the science and spin behind the headlines and come to a provocative conclusion: climate change is real, and partially man-made, but it is becoming obvious that far more warming has been forecast than is going to occur, and some of the catastrophic impacts can be shown to be implausible or impossible.

Purchase the ebook