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Post-1969 Immigration and the Example of the Insolvency of the Social Security System

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Abstract

Advocates of immigration to save Social Security (S.S.) assume that a pay-as-you-go system will work over the long run. That assumption is not shared by the Social Security Board of Trustees. Reflection shows that it would entail ever-larger new cohorts of immigrants to support those who are retiring, in effect, a Ponzi scheme. In fact, the benefits structure of the S.S. system, which pays out proportionately more to low-wage earners than to high-wage earners relative to their contributions, taken together with the income profile of post-1969 immigrants, means that the more immigration which occurs, the deeper into insolvency the system falls.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005-1892

    Donald L. Huddle

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  1. Donald L. Huddle
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Huddle, D.L. Post-1969 Immigration and the Example of the Insolvency of the Social Security System. Population and Environment 19, 533–539 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024664608242

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024664608242

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