The Significance and Solvency of Social Security

About one in five Americans receive retirement, survivor, disability, or supplemental income Social Security benefits. These payments represent a vital financial safety net, especially for retirees who have had modest lifetime earnings. This importance of Social Security makes reducing its benefits the “third rail” of American politics. But its pay-as-you-go structure – where today’s workers fund today’s retirees – threatens its fiscal solvency as fertility rates fall and aging baby boomers exit the labor force. Is there a way to keep the safety-net solvent? What's at stake if Social Security reform is unaddressed? Gopi Shah Goda joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these issues. Gopi is the Director of the Retirement Security Project, the Alice M. Rivlin Chair in Economic Policy, and Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at The Brookings Institution. She served as a Senior Economist for the Council of Economic Advisors in 2021 to 2022.