Safeguarding Social Security for Future Generations: Leaving a Legacy in an Aging Society

This book offers a unique multigenerational approach to saving Social Security. Public programs have adapted to societal aging, but fears overwhelm hopes for Social Security’s future prospects. Conservatives want to privatize operations that liberals seek to expand. Younger workers are happy that Social Security protects their elders, but most do not expect benefits when needed. Achenbaum reframes conflicting perspectives and offers new models of respectful transgenerational dialogue that can mobilize pragmatic reforms.

Designed for use in gerontology, social work, and public policy courses, Safeguarding Social Security for Future Generations offers measured hope for leaving a legacy that safeguards the common good.

W. Andrew Achenbaum is a semiretired professor of history and gerontology in the Texas Medical Center, Houston. He served as Deputy Director of University of Michigan’s Institute of Gerontology and as Professor of history, before he became founding dean of the University of Houston’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. A former board chair of the National Council on Aging, he has received several teaching and public service awards and won the Gerontological Society of America’s highest honor, the Kent Lectureship. Achenbaum has published six books, coedited a dozen others, and written more than 200 peer-reviewed articles at the interface of the humanities and aging.