Public Policies

[actsnoblemartin]

what specific Public Policies have worked or failed in the last 100 years and why

I'd like to learn from the elders of the board, on this issue

[KarlMarx]

Social Security - failure

Why? Social Security is a "pay as you go" system. That is, contributors to the Social Security system are supporting those who are withdrawing funds from it. Put another way, those who contribute to the SS system are not putting aside money for their retirement. What's the problem with this system? It works only so long as there are more contributors to the system as pensioneers. That is, if generation X has more children than generation X-1 (thus assuring more contributors), the system will work... unfortunately, that has not been the case for the past 40 years or so... There is a decreasing number of contributors and an increasing number of pensioneers. The result is that, sooner or later, Social Security will be out of funds. Unless of course, the Social Security tax is increased, the benefits paid out are decreased, or (the most likely alternative) both.

Currently, Social Security makes up over 1/4 of the entire federal budget. Its share of future federal budgets will increase if nothing is done about it.

Social Security is like a Ponzi scheme, it only works so long as the number of contributors increases ad infinitum.

Also, SS has become a private lending institution for politicians and their pet projects... unfunded liabilities to the SS fund is in the tens of billions of dollars.

A system much like modern day 401(k)s would have been a better alternative to Social Security. That way, each contributor actually IS contributing to their retirement. This would have the net effect of increasing the savings rate, which would make investment capital available to businesses and improve the economy...

The downside to such a system? Government would have to give up its control over hundreds of billions of dollars... something that it will never do.