Other, general social insurance

In a recent article in Governing, J.B. Wogan asks, “Is it time to stop saying ‘Safety Net?’” 

He reports that several national groups representing public agencies and non-profits that administer food, housing, and health care benefit programs have stopped using the term “safety net” to describe these programs. He notes that “(d)ropping the term safety net is part of the human services groups' broader strategy to get the public and policymakers to think of human services as investments in the community that boost the economy, reduce crime and improve public health.”

On October 16, 2017, Members of the National Academy of Social Insurance, as well as other experts and supporters, gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts to discuss our nation’s social insurance programs and how they are addressing – and could better address – the challenges posed by growing inequality.

The Academy’s Board Chair, Bill Rodgers, Professor of Public Policy and Chief Economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, sat down with Professor Larry Summers for a fireside-style chat.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, let us recall the contributions to our nation’s vibrant social insurance infrastructure by those women who are no longer with us, but whose legacies remain strong.

Among these often unsung heroines are:

“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”
​- Thomas Jefferson 

With much fanfare, the Oxford Dictionaries announced that the new word for 2016 was “post-truth.” The Dictionary defines “post-truth” as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”