A Reminder Why Protecting Social Security Is So Important

jaredbernsteinblog.com — As private pensions weaken, we need to strengthen public ones. The loss of private pensions—and their partial replacement by financial-market-dependent defined contribution plans—represents a shift in the locus of risk of retirement security from employers to workers. Simple economics dictates a role for government to absorb the risk as it can do so far more efficiently than individuals on their own. That means ensuring the viability of social insurance. That, in turn, is not an argument against “entitlement reform,” whatever that is. But it’s very much an argument that such reform must absorb the added risk in such a way as to protect vulnerable retirees as private pensions fade.

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