As the baby boom generation gets closer to retirement, the debate over Social Security reform becomes more urgent. Unfortunately, policymakers remain fixated on individual accounts and other ways for the system to accumulate more savings. This narrow focus ignores an equally important, if not more important, challenge--how to address the needs of those who have been left out as demographics and work habits have changed the structure of the American family. In this book, budget experts and social scientists examine the history of family benefits in Social Security and show how changes in the retired population have affected the nature of these benefits and their ability to serve the elderly. They examine the current structure of spousal and survivors benefits and evaluate a variety of reform proposals--including individual accounts--that could improve the living standards of the neediest Social Security beneficiaries. It is essential analysis for anyone concerned about the future of America's most successful social program.

Nearly every recent poll finds that most voters agree with views historically labeled as liberal: a hike in the minimum wage, government-mandated health insurance for every American, stronger gun control laws, broader sex education programs, laws that would make it easier for unions to organize, and the use of diplomacy instead of war to combat terrorism. But as a conservative presidential administration exits, how can progressives step into the breach? In Search of Progressive America presents ten essays by journalists, academics, and government insiders that address the current state of promise and debate within the Left in U.S. politics. The political atmosphere that confronts progressives still poses challenges, and the authors propose thoughtful ways to create a new political order by building an inclusive, durable coalition. The collection covers several of the most significant aspects of American political life. Matthew Yglesias, Andrew Bacevich, and Gary Gerstle offer three sober evaluations of the United States in world affairs and the impact of the world on American minds. Next, Todd Gitlin and Andrew Rich examine the struggle to control the messages of politics, through the mainstream media and think tanks, respectively. Ezra Klein, Dean Baker, Karen Kornbluh, and Nelson Lichtenstein each call for major changes in domestic policy grounded in both history and common sense. Finally, Michael Kazin recalls the era when Christian activists were found more often on the left than on the right and argues that a second coming of religious progressivism might be possible today.

This handbook provides a survey of the American welfare state. It offers an historical overview of U.S. social policy from the colonial era to the present, a discussion of available theoretical perspectives on it, an analysis of social programmes, and on overview of the U.S. welfare state's consequences for poverty, inequality, and citizenship.

An illuminating and thought-provoking examination of the uniquely American institution of marriage, from the Colonial era through the #MeToo age Perfect for fans of Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Traister Americans hold marriage in such high esteem that we push people toward it, reward them for taking part in it, and fetishize its benefits to the point that we routinely ignore or excuse bad behavior and societal ills in the name of protecting and promoting it. In eras of slavery and segregation, Blacks sometimes gained white legal status through marriage. Laws have been designed to encourage people to marry so that certain societal benefits could be achieved: the population would increase, women would have financial security, children would be cared for, and immigrants would have familial connections. As late as the Great Depression, poor young women were encouraged to marry aged Civil War veterans for lifetime pensions. The widely overlooked problem with this tradition is that individuals and society have relied on marriage to address or dismiss a range of injustices and inequities, from gender- and race-based discrimination, sexual violence, and predation to unequal financial treatment. One of the most persuasive arguments against women's right to vote was that marrying and influencing their husband's choices was just as meaningful, if not better. Through revealing storytelling, Zug builds a compelling case that when marriage is touted as “the solution” to such problems, it absolves the government, and society, of the responsibility for directly addressing them.

This book examines the aging of the US population as a primary domestic public policy issue. An increase in the proportion of the elderly in the total population will potentially result in a significant growth in the number of beneficiaries in major federal entitlement programs, leading to fiscal pressures and challenges for economic growth.

The aging of America's population makes it imperative that we reform Social Security, but so far we have failed. To instruct this seemingly endless quest, International Perspectives on Social Security Reform looks at public pension revision in six countries that, like the United States, are members of the OECD and have a long tradition of social security threatened by population aging. Canada, Sweden, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy have much to teach the United States about what works well--and what works badly. A substantive analysis of each country's reforms is augmented in commentary by distinguished economists, who offer their own opinions. Ideas examined include private accounts, notional accounts, incentives to delay retirement, and automatic systems of pension adjustment.With contributions from Real Bouchard; Stuart Butler; James C. Capretta; Agneta Kruse and Edward Palmer; Estelle James; Lawrence H. Thompson; Tetsuo Kabe; Jagadeesh Gokhale; Richard Jackson; Michael Mersmann; Maya MacGuineas; Neil Howe; Alex Beer; John Turner; Stanford G. Ross; Alicia Puente Cackley, Tom Moscovitch, and Benjamin Pfeiffer; Paul N. Van de Water; and Dalmer D. Hoskins.

Social Policy and Social Justice provides today's students and tomorrow's practitioners with a comprehensive overview of U.S. social policy and the policymaking process. Author and editor Michael Reisch brings together experts in the field to help students understand these policies and prepare them for the emerging realities that will shape practice in the 21st century. This text explores the critical contextual components of social policy—including history, ideology, political-economy, and culture—and demonstrates major substantive areas of policy such as income maintenance and health/mental health.

This comprehensive, state-of-the-art textbook and reference volume in family gerontology reviews and critiques the recent theoretical, empirical, and methodological literature; identifies future research directions; and makes recommendations for gerontology professionals. This book is both an updated version of and a complement to the original Handbook of Families and Aging. The many additions include the most recent demographic changes on aging families, new theoretical formulations, innovative research methods, recent legal issues, and death and bereavement, as well as new material on the relationships themselves—sibling, partnered, and intergenerational relationships, for example. Among the brand-new topics in this edition are step-family relationships, aging families and immigration, aging families and 21st-century technology, and peripheral family ties. Unlike the more cursory summaries found in textbooks, the essays within Handbook of Families and Aging, Second Edition provide thoughtful, in-depth coverage of each topic. No other book provides such a comprehensive and timely overview of theory and research on family relationships, the contexts of family life, and major turning points in late-life families. Nevertheless, the contents are written to be engaging and accessible to a broad audience, including advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, researchers, and gerontology practitioners. Serious lay readers will also find this book highly informative about contemporary family issues.