Book: Social Insurance: America’s Neglected Heritage and Contested Future

YaleNews features works recently or soon to be published by members of the University community. Descriptions are based on material provided by the publishers. Authors of new books may forward publishers’ book descriptions to us by email.

Social Insurance: America’s Neglected Heritage and Contested Future

Theodore R. Marmor, professor emeritus of public policy & management, 
Jerry L. Mashaw, Sterling Professor of Law, and 
John Pakutka

(CQ Press)

This book examines what America has done to protect its citizens from life-changing but common risks such as the death of a family breadwinner, ill health, disability, involuntary unemployment, outliving retirement savings, and birth into a poor family. It asks the questions: How do our current policies affect taxation, spending, and the economy, as well as prospects for individual lives? What more might these policies do to protect Americans?

With stories, data, and analysis, “Social Insurance” provides an intellectual foundation for understanding the history, economics, politics, and philosophy of America’s most important social insurance programs. This work provides a unifying vision of these programs’ purposes and reminds us why we have the programs and policies we do, while arguing for reforms that preserve and enhance the protections in place.