An Analytical-Exploratory Approach to a Socially-Optimal, Sustainable, and Balancing Social Security System

Abstract

While providing its 83^rd year of service, our Social Security Administration (SSA) in the U.S. has been the center of strongly justifiable concerns by most financial experts, policymakers, and politicians in this country for more than 2 decades. Several problems are addressed, the most serious one of which has to do with a growing gap between SSA’s prospective liabilities and accumulated reserves in just a few years ahead. If that imbalance continues, one of the biggest financial saving sources for many Americans would be dried out, which could add to the list of some major existing challenges that this nation is facing. Other challenges, beyond the context of this research, are healthcare accessibility, growing cost of higher education, and some inadequate retirement programs for many to encounter.  This research will provide a critical review of the system, as is, a review of the major innovative policy resolutions, and it finally provides a newly proposed approach to giving the social security fund more dynamic growth and adequacy as well as some project-management-based policy prescriptions for its sustainability. While an explorative analysis is applied, data sources are mainly from Boston College and Social Security Administration.