The 2024 edition of the annual report of the Social Security trustees was released on May 6, 2024, and its conclusions are sobering. Approximately 21% of scheduled benefits lack funding, a figure that includes future payments for current beneficiaries. If corrective action is much further delayed, continued solvency will be for all practical purposes unachievable, meaning that the current design of Social Security will need to be abandoned. If that happens, it will not be because Americans signaled a desire to scrap Social Security’s current structure, but because lawmakers dithered past the point where repairs could fix the problem. This would be a scandalous abdication of public responsibility.

It’s important first to step back and remember what the trustees’ reports are meant to tell us. They are not just an abstract accounting exercise, but instead convey the magnitude of the changes needed to maintain Social Security in its current form.