Social Security and the Middle-Class Squeeze
Fact and Fiction about America's Entitlement Programs
Leonard J. Santow, Mark E. Santow
ISBN:
0-313-36189-4
ISBN-13:
978-0-313-36189-0
232 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication:
10/30/2008
Availability:
Print on demand
Media Type:
Paperback
Trim Size:
6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description:
At the outset of his second term, President Bush's proposal to partially privatize Social Security has touched off a debate of enormous proportion. Disentangling the rhetoric and hyperbole from fact is essential for anyone trying to evaluate the potential merits or pitfalls of the plan. Leonard and Mark Santow—a father-and-son team who integrate two different political viewpoints (fiscally conservative and socially liberal, respectively)—offer specific recommendations for improving Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in socially responsible ways that relieve some of the stress on the middle class and promote upward mobility. Explaining sophisticated economic concepts in layman's terms, the Santows expose myths about how entitlement programs actually work, arguing, for example, that while the financial state of Social Security gets most of the press, Medicare and Medicaid are in much more serious trouble. They integrate conservative and liberal viewponts to propose a package of reforms that includes both tax cuts and increases and an overhaul of the government's economic forecasting system.
Title Features:
Featuring a timeline of key events since Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935 and an appendix of data tables, the authors offer a primer for concerned citizens, policymakers, educators, students, and finance professionals—anyone with a stake in designing a system that pays for these essential programs in an equitable manner and contributes to our collective prosperity.
Table of Contents:
-
Foreword
Acknowledgements
A Practitioner and a Historian Combine Ideas
Government and the Promise of American Life
The Middle Class and the American Dream
Explaining and Analyzing are not Enough
New Ways to Look at Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Misconceptions and Myths About Social Security
Government Cannot Legislate Investment Success
Big Budget Deficits - Not Good for Stocks and Privatization
Let's Talk Politics
Forecasting by the Trustees - Flaws and Recommendations
Social Security Around the World
Some Parting Thoughts
Appendix I: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - Facts and History Appendix II: The Tables
Notes
About the Authors
Index
About the Author:
Leonard J. Santow is Managing Director of Griggs & Santow Inc., an economic and financial consulting firm in New York City. His clients include government agencies, central banks, investment and commercial banks, corporations, pension funds, insurance companies, government securities dealers, and money managers. He is the author of The Budget Deficit: The Causes, the Costs, and the Outlook Helping the Fed Work Smarter, and coauthor of Social Security and the Middle-Class Squeeze (Praeger, 2005). Santow holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois.
Mark E. Santow is Assistant Professor of American History and a fellow at the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, specializing in 20th-Century American urban history, politics, and social policy. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Fordham University, and Gonzaga University, and published numerous essays on segregation, urban policy, and the war on poverty. His book, Saul Alinsky and the Dilemmas of Race in the Post-War City, will be published in 2006.
LCC Class:
368
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