While primarily a political science treatise, this book contains two reliable and highly-readable chapters on the historical development of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. There are also many other observations of historical interest on the general subject of federal budgeting and the role of trust funds in federal programs. This is a collection of 22 essays from the storied career of former Social Security Commissioner Robert M. Ball . They date from a 1942 memorandum on interviewing Social Security applicants, to material written regarding the Social Security debate in the 2000 Presidential election. Through skillful editorial selection, this collection of Ball's prior publications ends up being an accessible, fairly comprehensive, overview of the history and philosophy of Social Security in America.
Ball provides the intellectual context for an unabashedly traditionalist view of social insurance.
Like his career itself, this revue of some of his major essays is destined to become a classic in the field. Daniel J.B. Mitchell M.E. Sharpe, 2000. This is an excellent history of the alternative pension movements that flourished in California from the 1920s to the 1950s. But it also contains discussions of the Townsend Plan, Upton Sinclair's EPIC plan, and other variants prominent during this era . The book is noteworthy for its discussion of the relationship of these movements to the Social Security program, both in the past, and as harbingers for the future.