@keds_economist How do we fix Social Security? I explain that its really easy, there’s lots of ways to do it, and the feeling like its fated to fail one day is based on misconception. We can fix it! #socialsecurity #socialsecuritybenefits #socialsecuritytaxes #retirement #retirementage #taxes #congress #reform ♬ original sound – keds_economist
Whenever social security is brought up, as with most economic topics, it is often dismissed as being too complicated to understand, let alone fix. However, economist Kathryn Anne Edwards, known on TikTok as keds_economist, pushes back against this idea in one of her recent videos. She said that a few easy policy fixes could greatly improve the system.
“When I say Social Security is fixable, I mean it is crazy fixable,” Edwards boldly states.
In the video, she starts by explaining the economics behind Social Security and discussing the shortfall that could affect it someday. However, she carefully points out that the shortfall is not nearly as scary as it has been made out to be.
“The Office of the Actuary of Social Security is in charge of its 75-year projections from which we know that Social Security has a 75-year shortfall,” says Edwards, who works as a freelance economic policy consultant. “What that means is that when the Office of the Actuary projects tax collections for the next 75 years and then projects benefit payments for the next 75 years, it subtracts the two, and there's a difference. We aren't going to collect enough taxes to pay out what we have in benefits. This is an actuarial shortfall, technically a long-range actuarial shortfall. That's an important distinction because the program is not in shortfall now and has not been for the past 40 years.”
She goes on to explain that if the Actuary of Social Security changed the provisions, they would be able to fix the problem immediately. Contrary to popular belief, Social Security is not in dire straits—far from it, actually. According to Edwards, even if the shortfall happened tomorrow, Social Security would simply deliver reduced payments until the problem is solved rather than ceasing to exist.
“Even though Social Security has been on incredibly sound financial footing on a per-year basis, for the last 40 years, for the last 30 years, people have been telling you that it's going to run out of money one day,” she says. “[But] it's saved trillions of dollars for social for retirement in the future… Congress is not good at fixing problems in a timely fashion. But that does not mean that those problems are not fixable, or that social security isn't, you know, fully capable of being there for you in a generous way.”
Kathryn Anne Edwards: Website | TikTok | Instagram | Substack
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