We’ve long emphasized that Social Security benefits are modest — averaging only about $1,100 a month for retirees, disabled workers, and widows. And they’re also low in relation to earnings. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, they replace just 42 percent of a median worker’s earnings. That puts us in 30th place among the 34 OECD member countries.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies has devised a Global Aging Preparedness (GAP) index to rate various nations’ readiness for future demographic changes. CSIS observes that, thanks to its comparatively high birth rates and openness to immigration, the United States is graying less rapidly than many other nations. People age 60 or older will make up about a quarter of our population in 2040, a figure that several European countries and Japan have already surpassed. CSIS assigns a low priority to reducing public-pension (i.e., Social Security) benefits in the United States and other “Anglo” nations. Its top priority for the United States? Reining in future health-care cost growth.
[Read the full article from the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities.]
Comments