The possibility of increasing the age at which Social Security benefits are first paid merits renewed scrutiny for at least three reasons: • a decrease in overall benefits would imply that those claiming reduced benefits before the 'full benefits age' may accept benefits that seem adequate...

Examines the theoretical rationale for wealth transfer taxes, discusses data on the distribution and accumulation of wealth, and reviews the experience of the United States and other countries under their existing systems. Because a substantial portion of the existing stock of wealth is...

Concentrates on the tendency under any health insurance system to overconsume health care services -- the problem of "moral hazard" that arises whenever people deciding on the use of some economic good do not bear the full economic cost of their decisions, and the administrative problems that...

Social Security is currently much in the news because it faces a projected funding gap, because of overall budget deficits, and because of doubts in some quarters about its design. Minor adjustments are sufficient to close the funding gap. Benefit cuts, even if considered desirable, would not...

Discusses the proposed cuts of social security and what the outcome of those cuts may be. Also discusses cutting the payroll tax and privatization.

Population aging results inevitably from increasing longevity and declining fertility. But how much and how fast populations age differ enormously. So do the fiscal stresses that population aging generates.

Several empirical studies have presented evidence that per-person health care spending does not rise with calendar age but with proximity to death. Hence, it is alleged that increases in longevity will not, by themselves, boost health care spending. Unfortunately, available data provide no basis...

What are the implications of the current structure of the U.S. health care system for U.S. fiscal stability at the federal and state levels over the medium and long terms? What are the national, global, and inter-generational distribution effects? How will a growing recognition of the need for...

The possibility of increasing the age at which Social Security benefits are first paid merits renewed scrutiny for at least three reasons: 1) a decrease in overall benefits would imply that those claiming reduced benefits before the ‘full benefits age' may accept benefits that seem adequate...