How to Fix Social Security

Alicia Munnell wants to make one thing clear. Social Security is not going bankrupt. The program that the economist calls “the most valuable component of our retirement system” is a sustainable system and can be fixed. America has just been avoiding the hard choices it has to make if it wants to keep Social Security around for future generations.

Munnell, who worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston for 20 years, the Treasury Department for two years during the Clinton administration67, and served on a U.S. Social Security Advisory Board in 2015, is director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. She has parsed just about every argument for how to reset Social Security’s finances. In a recent conversation and paper, Munnell, 74, laid out the stark choices Americans face, and the solutions suggested by two diametrically opposed pieces of legislation.

We all know Social Security has long-term cash-flow issues. How would you describe the challenge?