Young Americans Should Be Raising Hell About Social Security
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Getting a note from production that this falconry metaphor might play because Ren Faire is really big with the youth right now.
Hello and welcome to Optimist Economy. I'm economist Katherine Ann Edwards. I'm editor Robin Rousey. On this show, we believe the U.S. economy can be better and we talk about how to get there one problem and solution at a time.
And today on Optimist Economy, what are we talking about, Catherine?
Social security. Social security. We're talking about social security.
It's like a birthday gift to you. It's Catherine's favorite topic. Is this like our fourth social security episode?
I mean, if we need to count, we can, but doesn't it feel like there's never enough? Okay, sorry. We're talking about Social Security for the young. We just got the release of the trustees report from Social Security that tells us how long until the trust fund is depleted. And that is in 2032, which means that we have entered the Social Security elections. If you're voting for a senator right now, you are voting for a senator that will have to vote on Social Security. So... This isn't speculative anymore. We are in Social Security elections, and so we wanted to do a voter's guide to Social Security. Okay. Especially new young voters who are maybe naturally skeptical of the program. Sounds good. Okay, announcements.
Announcements. Do you have any announcements? I don't have any announcements.
I just have one announcement, which is that if you are a person who likes to hear an economist swear, we have a feed for you. Yeah, we do. If you just heard a loud beep, you wouldn't have to if you were listening to the show on YouTube. So there you go. I did that at the behest of several listeners who keep asking if we have an unbleaped version of the podcast.
What's funny is how much I try not to swear when we record, but I curse like a sailor. That's just who I am.
What immediate context explains why Social Security matters to people under 40?
Andy is typing in all caps, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also comment on YouTube about this specific episode. This is also maybe a good reminder to say you could leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts. That's also handy. Retcon? Retcon.
And if you're new here... If you're new here... If you're new here... I'm sorry. I mean, welcome to the jungle. If you're new here, we start off the show with a segment called Retroactive Continuity where we try to fix things that we said before but already aired. Or just give updates and reflections on past episodes. Exactly. I have one bit of Retroactive Continuity, which is that... In episode six of this season, Can $1,000 at Birth Make Us a Country of Savers?, I mentioned that the child savings accounts that was in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and is in the process of being rolled out right now has been piloted successfully on the state level in Oklahoma, and they're called SeedOK accounts. And SeedOK was very demonstrative of how important auto-enrollment is.
Mm-hmm. Well, kind of an update to that is those kids in SeedOK turned 18. Recently. Recently. And we now have data on what they did when they turned 18. About 27% spent the money when they turned 18. And about two-thirds of those who spent money, it went to post-secondary education. And a lot of them, it was the full balance of their account.
And so two-thirds is like whatever, 18%, 19% of them.
Yeah. On average, it was about $2,300. Females were 19 percentage points more likely than males to have a distribution. Have a distribution at all? Yes. About 43% of the distributions that went to schools went to trade schools or two-year schools, and 57% went to four-year colleges.
But it is surprising that nearly three-quarters of them didn't spend it at all. I mean, it could be that they're waiting to see what their book bills are like in year three of college or something. Yeah.
So, I mean, that's kind of exactly what we wanted them to do, was to cash it out and spend it on school. So great job.
Yeah, yeah. Great. Next up is Charms and Conditions. Katherine, looks like you have a real on-the-nose one, head-on.
Head-on.
Head-on.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:07
2
What immediate context explains why Social Security matters to people under 40?
2:07–5:33
3
What announcements and show housekeeping should listeners know first?
5:33–9:58
4
What did the SeedOK child savings pilot reveal about automatic enrollment?
9:58–17:29
5
How does social insurance differ from private insurance and payroll taxes?
17:29–36:26
6
Why are young people skeptical of Social Security and how is that exploited politically?
36:26–44:07
Speakers
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