The Social Security System: An Evaluation of Policy Alternatives.

This article policy alternatives regarding social security system. The significant increase in the size of the social security program within the past decade has prompted considerable interest in analyzing the role of a federal retirement program in the economy. The old-age, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI) program, otherwise known as social security, is today the largest single program in The budget of the United States government. Social security remains the basic retirement system for most American workers and their families, with more than 102 million currently working in jobs covered under the program and with more than 34 million beneficiaries in 1978. As most taxpayers have become increasingly aware, this rapid increase in benefits has been accompanied by an equally rapid increase in both the social security tax rate and wage base. From an original tax rate of 1 percent on a maximum taxable wage base of $3000 in 1937, the current provisions call for a tax rate of 6.65 percent to be applied to a maximum taxable wage base of $29,700 by 1981. This will mean that by 1981,91 percent of all payroll in covered employment will be subject to social security and approximately 95 percent of all covered workers will have their entire wages subject to social security taxation.