首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
Reforming the Social Security retirement program is an issue of enormous practical importance. Yet it remains the missing piece
Reforming the Social Security retirement program is an issue of enormous practical importance. Yet it remains the missing piece
admin
2014-03-15
62
问题
Reforming the Social Security retirement program is an issue of enormous practical importance. Yet it remains the missing piece in American policy analysis. At a time when the Congress and the Administration are considering ways to reform welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, and the income tax, elected officials are still unwilling to confront the serious problems of our Social Security system. Eventually, however, its deteriorating financial condition will force major reforms.
Whether those reforms are good or bad, whether they deal with the basic economic problems of the system or merely protect the solvency of existing institutional arrangements will depend in part on whether we, as economists, provide the appropriate intellectual framework for analyzing reform alternatives.
Major policy changes that affect the public at large can only happen in our democracy, when there is widespread public support for the new direction of policy. In the field of economics, the views of the media, of other private-sector opinion leaders, and of politicians and their advisers, depend very much on their perception of what economists believe feasible and correct. Fundamental policy reforms in a complex area like social security also require the development of technical expertise, both in and out of government, about the options for change and their likely consequences. Fortunately, an expanding group of economists is now thinking and writing about social security reform. My remarks today greatly benefit from what they have written and from my conversations with many of them.
I began to do my research on the effects of Social Security reform nearly 25 years ago ( Feld-stein, 1974, 1975 ) . A central concept in my analysis of Social Security has been the notion of "Social Security wealth which I defined as the present actuarial value of the Social Security benefits to which the current adult population will be entitled at age 65 (or are already entitled to if they are older than 65) minus the present actuarial value of the Social Security taxes that they will pay before reaching that age. Social Security wealth has now grown to about $ 11 trillion or more than 1. 5 times GDP. Since this is equivalent to more than $ 50, 000 for every adult in the country , the value of Social Security wealth substantially exceeds all other assets for the vast majority of American households. In the aggregate, Social Security wealth exceeds three-fourth of all private financial wealth, as conventionally measured.
Social Security wealth is of course not real wealth but only a claim on current and future taxpayers. Instead of labeling this key magnitude "Social Security wealth", I could have called it the nation’s "Social Security liability". Like ordinary government debt, Social Security wealth has the power to crowd out private capital accumulation, and Social Security wealth will continue to grow as long as our current system remains unchanged, displacing an ever larger stock of capital.
The $ 11 trillion Social Security liability is three times as large as the official national debt. Although I certainly welcome the current political efforts to shrink future budget deficits, it is worth noting that, even if the traditional deficit is eliminated in the year 2002, so that the national debt is then no longer increasing, the national debt in the form of the Social Security liability is likely to increase that year by about $ 300 billion.
Looking further into the future, the aggregate Social Security liability will grow as the population expands, as it becomes relatively older, and as income rises. Government actuaries predict that, under existing law, the tax rate required to pay each year’ s Social Security benefit will rise over the next 50 years from the present level of slightly less than 12 percent to more than 18 percent, and perhaps to as much as 23 percent.
In the last sentence of the first paragraph, the word "alternatives" refers to_____.
选项
A、courses
B、thoughts
C、people
D、occasions
答案
D
解析
题目问:单词“alternatives”是指什么?通过第一段“Whether those reforms are good or bad,whether they deal with the basic economic problems of the system or merely protect the solvency of existing institutional arrangements will depend in part on whether we,as economists,provide the appropriate intellectual framework for analyzing reform alternatives.”可知,不论这些改革是好是坏,还是他们处理经济问题的根本制度,或仅仅是保护现有偿付能力的体制安排,都部分取决于我们的经济学家们提供适当的供选方案。据此判断,应选择D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/tkhi777K
0
在职申硕(同等学力)英语
相关试题推荐
Manyobserversbelievethatcountrywillremaininastateofchaosifitfailstosolveitschronicfoodshortageproblem.
Desperatelyshortoflivingspaceanddangerouslypronetoflooding,theNetherlandsplanstostartbuildinghomes,businessesa
Iwouldliketoexpressmy______toyouallforsupportingmethissummerasavisitingscholarinyourdepartment.
We’llalltakeavacationinthemountainsassoonasIfinishworking______myproject.
Thepromisedwageincreaseisbeingheldbackwhileitisexaminedbythegovernmenttoseeifitisgreaterthanthelawallows
Thedeclineinmoralstandards,whichhaslongconcernedsocialanalysts,hasatlast______theattentionofaverageAmericans.
Onbehalfofmycompany,Iam______toyouandyourcolleaguesforyourgeneroushelp.
Themilitaryoperations_____yesterdayweretargetedatthemilitaryinstallations.
Onereactiontoalltheconcernabouttropicaldeforestationisablankstarethatasksthequestion,"SinceIdon’tliveint
Onereactiontoalltheconcernabouttropicaldeforestationisablankstarethatasksthequestion,"SinceIdon’tliveint
随机试题
足部膝关节、肘关节、肩关节反射区在()上。
下列选项中,【】活动属于企业资金营运活动。
下列有关心电图的描述,错误的是()
地黄饮子具有的治疗作用是
根据企业资产构成和承担的法律责任划分,可将企业分为生产型企业、流通型企业、服务型企业、金融型企业。()
在市场上,由于供给和需求力量的相互作用,市场价格()。
对锚杆挡土墙的特点描述错误的是()。
以下属于理财规划组成部分的是( )。
2016年10月8日,山东省人民政府办公厅公布《山东省安全生产“十三五”规划》,强调要强化矿山设备设施安全管理,特别是地下开采矿山()关键环节的安全生产。
HumansmaynothavelandedonMars(火星)justyet,butthatisn’tstoppingaEuropeancompanyfromdevisingaplantosendfourp
最新回复
(
0
)