--- title: What's Wrong With Social Security, and How to Fix It | TIME description: Author Harold Pollack explains how the U.S. government can fix our struggling Social Security system. canonical: https://time.com/video/s6HRQPbc/ og:title: What's Wrong With Social Security, and How to Fix It og:description: Author Harold Pollack explains how the U.S. government can fix our struggling Social Security system. og:url: https://time.com/video/s6HRQPbc/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/s6HRQPbc/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What's Wrong With Social Security, and How to Fix It twitter:description: Author Harold Pollack explains how the U.S. government can fix our struggling Social Security system. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/s6HRQPbc/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # What's Wrong With Social Security, and How to Fix It > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: What's Wrong With Social Security, and How to Fix It [Watch (HLS stream): What's Wrong With Social Security, and How to Fix It](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/s6HRQPbc.m3u8) (3:09)  _Published 2016-06-23. Author Harold Pollack explains how the U.S. government can fix our struggling Social Security system._ --- Jul 27, 2023 8:18 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Will Social Security Be There for Me?](/video/D7u6xtpa/) ### Will Social Security Be There for Me? [Social Security and Disability](/video/WKZHj8hL/) ### Social Security and Disability [Will Social Security Be There For Me?](/video/0yVAkmiH/) ### Will Social Security Be There For Me? --- ## Transcript I'm here with Harold Pollack. He is co- author of The Index Card, why personal finance doesn't have to be complicated. Now in you're book you talk a lot about what individuals should be doing to increase their financial well- being. Where does that stop, what do you think that the government should be doing that it isn't doing now? Well, I think there are a couple of things. I think one things is that there are certain risks that would just crush any one of us if we had to face it alone. And so in one of the stories that I tell in the book is that my mother in law died suddenly and her son who's intellectually disabled had to move into our home and my wife had to take care of him and leave the work force and we just would have absolutely been bankrupted if it weren't for The social programs that help supports his needs, and so, I'm a huge fan of social security, medicare and Medicaid. And especially as somebody who's given people financial advice, and has a tenured job at a major University, I think it's actually really important that I'm Outing myself as someone who was rescued by the American tax- payer in my hour of need, and now I should be able to rescue other people if they need that. Fortunately we have weathered that personal crisis and so we do need these strong social insurance programs. I also think that Many, many people don't earn enough money over their careers, or they have things that happen in their worklives that make it hard for them to save enough to retire with the amount of money they will need. Especially, you know, if you're healthy and you're age 65, you're gonna live a long time, and it requires money to live a comfortable retirement. And I do think we have to shore up The Social Security system to make sure that everyone can enjoy the kind of retirement and dignity that we should. And I think one concern that I have about the 401K system that I often give advice to my friends and colleagues about is It's really great for people like me who have a steady job and can really methodically save it in. I think for people who are earning 50, 000 dollars a year and supporting a young family, it's hard to save enough. And for those people, the social security system is really going to be the lynch pin of their retirement. And the sooner we act as a society To show up that Social Security System and make sure that it's really there in a secure way for everyone the better we're all going to be and we have a long term short fall in social security. Its not catastrophic but it's a real thing and the sooner we deal with it, the more compound interest will work in our favor as supposed to against us As we try to fix this problem in a manageable way. So raising the cap on the earnings that are taxed to pay for social security, maybe a gas tax or some other way that would help support the system. And I think probably at the top end people like me maybe should get a little bit lower benefits over time. We have to do something so that every American has that secure retirement. And that's something that I spend a lot of time thinking about. Especially since my own family so benefitted in our own hour of need from these programs. Well, great. Well, thank you very much. 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