Building a Brighter Future: A Proposal for Market-Based Universal Social Insurance

By Archer D O'Brien

I, Archer O'Brien , am a 29-year-old PhD candidate with a bachelor's degree in history from Mount Saint Mary's College and a master's degree in humanities from Hood College. Having dealt with cerebral palsy from birth, I have overcome many mental, physical, and psychiatric obstacles, such as surviving 42 surgeries throughout my lifetime. These challenges have led me to realize that I have a profound purpose: to serve the people of the United States of America. I present this book's proposal to build a resilient, adaptive, and universal market-based welfare state that looks after the least well off: those with disabilities, single-parent families, housing issues, and other vulnerable populations. No American should fear destitution. The things that happen to us in every season on life should not have the capacity to drive us into abject poverty. This book centers on Americans who are caught between income levels for benefits, age verification, or disability. Universal social insurance aims to provide all Americans the same level of social provision guaranteed to Americans aged 65 and older. It has been 41 years since the Social Security Act was last amended in 1983, which brought state pension benefits into the tax system for the first time, and the modern world is vastly different. We face difference social pressures and exigencies than those encountered in 1983. It is time for our welfare state to meet the needs of 21st-century Americans. Reform will be difficult. Reform would challenge some of the most entrenched constituencies in this country and their special interest groups. Still, reform is necessary if we do not break faith with our fellow citizens that social provision will be there when we need it. If we succeed, our social contract can continue, and intergenerational justice will finally be an assurance.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0D9PF16Z5
• ISBN13: 9798333146663
• Release Date: July 2024
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 112 Pages
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.5" x 8.3"