One of the difficulty assessing policy discussions in the presidential debates or even in media discussion is that often there are a series of numbers tossed around that leave viewers more confused and ignorant of the problems policymakers face than when the candidates started. Or, else, the candidate eschews bureaucratspeak and talks instead in humanizing terms, of people and their lives and stories. Unfortunately, anecdote is often the enemy of the big picture. Nowhere is this clearer than in Social Security. Because the issue - whether there’s a crisis or just a problem, whether the problem is big enough to justify a huge chargeoff now in transitioning to a private account system or whether such transition costs exceed the necessary correction - all this requires some grappling with the numbers at stake: budgets, government accounting, and demographic projections.
So I recommend Paul Solman’s piece on the NewsHour about the looming crisis in Social Security, a follow-up to his report on the famed lockbox. Mind you, as television journalism, it too doesn’t exactly do numbers. And I’m still unsure after watching it what exactly is the best response to the problem. But it does an excellent job in framing the issue, and of using anecdote smartly.
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