Social Security at 78

By JARED BERNSTEIN, NYT

Jared Bernstein is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington and a former chief economist to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Leave it to my estimable colleague at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Kathy Ruffing, to remind everyone that today is Social Security’s 78th birthday. As she points out, and as can be seen in the chart below:

“This highly successful program pays benefits to 57 million Americans. It’s the single most important source of income for its elderly beneficiaries, contributing on average two-thirds of income for recipients over age 65. For more than one-third of them, Social Security constitutes 90 percent or more of income.”

As the chart shows, Social Security is especially important to the minority elderly.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Source: Social Security Administration, 2010 data.

Moreover, absent Social Security benefits, 44 percent of the elderly would be poor. But when you factor in the program, their poverty rate falls to 9 percent.

(More here.)