What If Social Security Had Been Privatized? The Value of Federal Government Pension Plans

In 2005, Congress debated giving U.S. workers private savings accounts to invest their Social Security contributions in the stock and bond markets. Sixteen later, we review how that would have worked out for workers.

Other topics discussed include:

• How the public and private sectors are both critical for a functioning social security systems
• Which countries pay the highest social security benefits
• How have other privatized social security plans worked out around the world
• How workers prefer defined contribution plans even though they are worse off than if defined benefit plans were still widely available
• How worried should we be about aging populations and rising dependency ratios
• Why Social Security won't go away

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Show Notes

Greenspan "There is nothing to prevent the government from creating as much money as it wants."—YouTube

Estimated Financial Effects of the "Social Security Personal Savings Guarantee and Prosperity Act of 2005" by Stephen C. Goss—Social Security Administration

Social Security Quick Calculator—Social Security Administration

The average 401(k) balance by age by Pau Deer—Empower

CBO’s 2022 Long-Term Projections for Social Security—Congressional Budget Office

Policy Basics: Top Ten Facts about Social Security—Center On Budget and Policy Priorities

Evaluation of Four Decades of Pension Privatization in Latin America, 1980-2020: Promises and Reality by Carmelo Mesa-Lago—SSRN

Population Age Structure and Secular Secular Stagnation: The Long Run Evidence by Joseph Kopecky—SSRN

Does Human Capital Compensate for Depopulation? by M. Siskova, Michael Kuhn, Klaus Prettner, Alexia Fürnkranz-Prskawetz—SSRN

How Much Do Public Employees Value Defined Benefit versus Defined Contribution Retirement Benefits? by Oliver Giesecke and Joshua D. Rauh—SSRN

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