How Social Security Picks Your Pocket: A Story of Waste, Fraud, and Inequities - Couverture souple

Fried, Joseph

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0875862489 ISBN 13 : 9780875862484

Editeur : Algora Publishing, 2003

Synopsis

How Social Security Picks Your Pocket is a hard hitting look at America’s most popular government program and the ways it shortchanges the very workers who fund it. Written in plain language, the book explains how Social Security actually works, who really pays for whom, and why many “average” workers will receive far less than they think—or could have had under a better design.

Joseph Fried, an MBA and practicing CPA, is an expert on Social Security policy with a particular focus on waste, fraud, and abuse. He walks readers through key structural flaws: benefit formulas that quietly shift money from some groups to others; political control that encourages short term promises over long term stability; and administrative practices that waste billions through lax disability standards, overpayments to the dead and ineligible, and loopholes that turn certain public employees into “the world’s highest paid janitors.” Concrete examples and program wide cost estimates show how small design quirks balloon into large, recurring drains.

Chapters on disability trends, early retirement incentives, and demographic pressures—such as lower birth rates and longer lifespans—clarify why the system faces mounting obligations it cannot meet under current rules. At the same time, the book insists that Social Security’s goals are “vital and noble,” and asks whether it is possible to retain a safety net for the poor while restoring fairness and transparency for everyone else.

This is not a technical manual for actuaries, but a guide for citizens who want to understand where their payroll taxes go and how policy choices affect their future. It will appeal to taxpayers, younger workers skeptical of promised benefits, retirees curious about the program’s sustainability, journalists, and policymakers looking for concrete reform ideas. For readers who find themselves getting angry as they turn the pages, the book even includes an appendix with contact information for officials and organizations, encouraging constructive civic action rather than resignation.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Algora Publishing
• Date d'édition: 2003
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0875862489
• ISBN 13: 9780875862484
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 260
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible