Social Security: A Global View

Germany was one among many countries to have a social security program in place before the United States did. Nicole Glass Photography/Shutterstock

I have always been amazed by the number of people who think Social Security is unique to the United States. Or if not truly unique, they figure that maybe a couple of those “socialist” countries such as Sweden and Denmark might have social insurance programs in place, but surely not too many other places. As someone once said to me following a speech I had given: “You know that Social Security is just one of the social experiments forced on this country by FDR and it’s doomed to failure just like so many of his other New Deal programs.”

This guy obviously was not a history major. But he mimicked views held by so many people: that Social Security is some kind of income redistribution experiment that the United States is testing. And if by some miracle it works here, maybe other nations around the world might follow suit.

Actually, just the opposite is true. Almost every country on the planet has a Social Security system in place for its citizens. And many of those countries had Social Security laws on their books long before the U.S. jumped on the social insurance bandwagon in the 1930s.

In fact, here is a list of the countries that had Social Security programs before the United States: Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay.

I have in front of me a book called “Social Security Programs Throughout the World” that is produced by the U.S. Social Security Administration. It provides thumbnail sketches of the history, funding and benefits of each country’s social insurance system. There are currently about 190 countries around the globe. And 177 of them, or 93 percent, have Social Security programs. I always point this out to young people who fret about the future of our Social Security system. I tell them that Social Security isn’t an American experiment in socialism that will someday run its course. Instead, Social Security is a worldwide phenomenon. It is a system of rules and laws in place everywhere from Albania to Zimbabwe. It is the method that civilized people across the globe use to provide some means of financial assistance to their elderly and disabled citizens, and to the widows, widowers and children of workers who die.

It’s that last point that is very interesting. Most Social Security programs around the world are funded similarly to our system (with taxes paid by employees and employers) and they offer benefits remarkably similar to our own—to retirees, to disabled people and to survivors. I’m going to use the rest of this column to highlight the similarities and differences between just a random selection of those 177 programs described in my book.

The United States

First Social Security laws: 1935

Funding: Workers pay 6.2 percent of wages matched by employers. Self-employed pay 12.4 percent.

Benefits: Full retirement age going up to 67 by 2027; disability at any age if 100 percent disabled; survivors benefits to children under age 18 and to widow(er)s at 60 or at any age if caring for minor children.

Germany

First Social Security laws: 1889

Funding: Workers pay 9.8 percent of wages matched by employers. Self-employed pay 19.6 percent.

Benefits: Full retirement at 67; disability benefits at any age for full or partial disabilities; survivors benefits to children until age 18 and possibly up to age 27; widow(er)s benefits for two years following death or for a longer period of time if caring for minor children.

Argentina

First Social Security laws: 1904

Funding: Workers pay 11 percent of wages; employers pay up to 17 percent; self-employed pay set monthly fees based on the kind of business.

Benefits: Retirement benefits for men at 65 and for women at 60; or as early as 50 if doing “hazardous work”; disability at any age with a loss of 66 percent of working capacity; survivors benefits to a spouse at any age and to children under age 18.

Kiribati

First Social Security laws: 1976

Funding: Workers pay 5 percent of earnings and employers pay a matching 5 percent.

Benefits: Retirement benefits at 50, but payable at 45 with evidence of intention to retire permanently, or payable at any age if emigrating permanently. Disability benefits paid if physically or mentally incapable of working. Survivors benefits paid if the insured had not withdrawn funds previously.

Niger

First Social Security laws: 1967

Funding: Worker pays 5.25 percent of wages matched by employer.

Benefits: Retirement at 60 or age 58 for government employees or age 55 if “prematurely aged”; disability benefits with a loss of 66 percent of working capacity; survivors benefits to children under 14 and to widow(er)s if caring for a dependent child.

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