Andrew Biggs on “How Secure is Social Security?”
The US Social Security Trust Fund is projected to deplete by 2034. A lot of working-age Americans believe they won't be able to receive full benefits when they retire. What happened to our Social Security? What policy options do we have left? Why haven’t we seen any Social Security reforms since 1983?
In this video, I spoke with Dr. Andrew Biggs from the American Enterprise Institute.
What did I learn?
(1) Economists have long cautioned about the lack of sustainability of Social Security - pretty much for four decades.
(2) The last meaningful Social Security reform took place in 1983.
(3) The US Social Security system is different from that in many other countries. The US model has work requirements and is contribution-based. The UK model functions more like welfare.
(4) President Bush attempted to reform Social Security, but his approach was too complex.
(5) Majority of working-age Americans don’t know how much they will get from Social Security when they retire - due to the complicated benefit formula.
(6) Reforming Social Security is politically unpopular: Voters don’t like higher taxes or benefit cuts, and thus, politicians kick the can down the road.
Andrew G. Biggs is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies Social Security reform, state and local government pensions, and public sector pay and benefits.
Before joining AEI, Biggs was the principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), where he oversaw SSA’s policy research efforts. In 2005, as an associate director of the White House National Economic Council, he worked on Social Security reform. In 2001, he joined the staff of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security. Biggs has been interviewed on radio and television as an expert on retirement issues and on public vs. private sector compensation.
He has published widely in academic publications as well as in daily newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has also testified before Congress on numerous occasions. In 2013, the Society of Actuaries appointed Biggs co-vice chair of a blue ribbon panel tasked with analyzing the causes of underfunding in public pension plans and how governments can securely fund plans in the future. In 2014, Institutional Investor Magazine named him one of the 40 most influential people in the retirement world. In 2016, he was appointed by President Obama to be a member of the financial control board overseeing reforms to Puerto Rico’s budget and the restructuring of the island’s debts.