As I woke up on the other side of a deeply consequential election, I’m reflecting on what this moment means for the social insurance community.
One of the clearest themes of this election was affordability. Across the country, Americans have been asking fundamental questions about whether the systems we depend on are working for them and their families. Whether they can afford to grow old with dignity. Whether they can get the care they need, or afford to provide care for someone they love. What the American Dream even means anymore.
We don’t always use the language of affordability when we talk about social insurance. But these questions go to the very heart of why social insurance exists — and to the heart of the social contract that is in so many ways up for review.
In his powerful victory remarks, Texas Senator-elect James Talarico spoke about the power of love. Of loving our neighbors — not just those who look, think, pray, or vote like us, but all of our neighbors. And he offered a simple but profound reminder: “Hate cannot build a future. But what hatred cannot do, love can.”
In so many ways, that is what social insurance is all about.
At its heart, social insurance is the love of neighbor made real through policy. It is the recognition that our lives are interconnected, that interdependence is the human condition, and that, as the old proverb goes, “it is in the shelter of each other that we live.”
Nearly a century ago, in the depths of the Great Depression, the architects of the New Deal dared to imagine a radically different social contract — one in which economic security would be a shared responsibility, and in which public policy could give life to our commitment to one another.
Their vision was bold, and it changed the course of our nation’s history.
Today, we are being called to bring that same boldness and imagination to the challenges of our own time.
The affordability and care crises are real. The financing gaps Social Security and Medicare face are real. And the coming chapter will demand more than defending what previous generations built. It will ask us to imagine — and help build — what comes next: bold policy solutions that meet the needs of today’s families and strengthen our social contract for generations to come.
That is the work before us.
I hope each of you will take a moment today to recognize the extraordinary opportunity we have to shape what comes next.
Thank you for the care, the imagination, and yes, the love you bring to this work.
We’re in this together.
About the National Academy of Social Insurance
The National Academy of Social Insurance is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization made up of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance. Its mission is to advance solutions to challenges facing the nation by increasing public understanding of how social insurance contributes to economic security.
Contact: Zane Snyder Cox, zsnydercox@nasi.org