Social Security Reform: Around the World in 80 Ways

The situation the US faces with an aging population is similar to that faced by most other countries. The US is not alone in facing the problem of long-run financial stability of social security, but it lags behind several other countries in considering or implementing reforms. Although the different approaches to social security reform may limit the risk to future generations of inadequate retirement incomes and limit the exposure of the economies in which they live to the burden of retirement claims, most countries are only dealing with the tip of the iceberg in their reforms. In those countries staying with pay-as-you-go financing there is a concern that the public will be dissatisfied with the level of benefits that can be financed at reasonable tax rates. One final concern that is left untouched by the current approaches to social-security reform regards the medical claims that older societies will create in the future.