The $29 Trillion Social Security Crisis We Already Know How to Fix ( with Rey Fuentes)
About this episode
The episode discusses the Social Security crisis and potential solutions to its funding shortfall.
Americans are told Social Security is in trouble because there are more retirees and fewer workers to support them. But that story leaves out a major part of the problem: how much income now sits outside the system that funds Social Security. Roosevelt Institute’s Rey Fuentes joins Nick and Goldy to explain how rising inequality, stagnant wages, and an outdated payroll-tax structure helped create Social Security’s looming shortfall — and why benefit cuts are far from inevitable. Plus, Nick puts forward a different way to think about fixing the system — one that starts with a basic question: why should some kinds of income count toward Social Security while others don’t? Rey Fuentes is Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Roosevelt Institute. The $29 trillion figure in this episode’s title refers to Social Security’s projected 75-year unfunded obligation. According to the 2026 Social Security Trustees Report, the combined retirement, survivor, and disability programs are projected to have a $29.3 trillion financing shortfall, measured in present-value dollars, between 2026 and 2100. That is not $29 trillion that comes due when the retirement trust fund is projected to deplete…
People in this episode
Host: Nick Hanauer
Guest: Rey Fuentes
Topics covered
- Social Security
- inequality
- wages
- payroll tax
- economic policy
- retirement funding
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Roosevelt Institute, Civic Ventures
More episodes of Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer
- Profit, Power, and the Crisis of the Common Good (with Sen. Chris Murphy)
- Chains of Command: How Franchising Turned Control Without Responsibility Into a Business Model (with Brian Callaci)
- The Joy of Money (with Carrie Joy Grimes)
- What Happened to Liberal Democracy (with Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu)
- What Happens When the Other Washington Stops Enforcing Antitrust? (with WA State Attorney General Nick Brown)
- The Good Life Economy (with Elizabeth Wilkins)
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer podcast page.