Countdown to Reform

The Great Social Security Debate

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by Henry J. Aaron and Robert D. Reischauer

Brookings Institution

Due/Published February 2001, 184 pages, paper

ISBN 0870784625

Will the baby boomers' retirement cause Social Security to collapse? Would benefits be larger and safer if Social Security were "privatized" by scrapping the current system in favor of individually owned private accounts? Who would gain and who would lose from the various reform plans now under discussion? In this book, two of the nation's most widely respected economists argue that the Chicken Little view, that future costs doom the current system, is exaggerated. They thoughtfully analyze various proposals for "saving" Social Security and present their own recommendations for reform.