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Who Wants to Privatize Social Security? Understanding Why the Poor Are Wary of Private Accounts
Author(s) -
Devroye Dan
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/1540-6210.00292
Subject(s) - social security , government (linguistics) , public economics , business , public opinion , popular opinion , economics , basic income , market economy , political science , politics , sociology , law , linguistics , philosophy , media studies
The poor are less likely than others to support the privatization of Social Security. What accounts for this income‐based difference in public opinion? This article uses a new survey to explore attitudes toward privatization. The poor tend to believe the government will manage Social Security responsibly, expect that they will rely on Social Security as a primary source of income, and prefer to keep their money in the current system rather than save or invest it. Together, these expectations and beliefs explain much of the income gap in support of privatization.