One important point: the actuarial projections about baby boomer retirement were very accurate. You might think we are hitting reserve depletion because "lots of old people/few workers" but that was baked into the 1983 amendment choices. It was the income inequality that caused the trouble.

It's not demographics...birth rates, immigration, the big boomer retirement wave....SSA's actuaries predicted all of that remarkably well. And it is not economic or wage growth...they got those too! So what happened? Two things: 1. massive unanticipated economic inequality in the 80s/90s...

A pleasure to share my assessment of the World Bank's Business Ready #B-READY project yesterday at @ituc.bsky.social. Welcome opportunity to hear more about the research of Rouguiatou Diallo, @floriangrant.bsky.social & Dhaisy Paredes Guzman. My paper w/Sangheon Lee: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Terrific column by @chrisgiles.ft.com;

A lot of attention has been on #FfD4 & the Compromiso de Sevilla – but what does it actually mean amidst a global debt crisis? @maxgallien.bsky.social & @floriangrant.bsky.social chat with WIEGO about the process and its outcomes: www.wiego.org/blog/tax-jus... #FinancingOurFuture #TaxExperts

#Arminia 💙 #Bielefeld

Someone on Threads noticed you can type any random sentence into Google, then add “meaning” afterwards, and you’ll get an AI explanation of a famous idiom or phrase you just made up. Here is mine

"No bros, no oligarchs" works pretty well www.zeit.de/politik/2025...

New blog on the importance of informal worker organisations deepening their understanding of domestic financing for social protection in this time of austerity and aid cuts, and how WIEGO's free online resources can support that www.wiego.org/blog/domesti...

The problem is: they've mistaken correlation for causation. They think their parents and grandparents had a good life *because* of manufacturing jobs. When, in reality, their parents and grandparents had a good life *despite* manufacturing jobs, because of unions, high taxes, and social policies.

Fußball, bloody hell! #DSCB04

Because social-insurance contributions depend on wages, labor-intensive firms now shoulder a larger financing burden, which lets many profitable companies off the hook, note @floriangrant.bsky.social and Luca Pellerano.

How to equitably finance social protection in a world where labour appears to be losing ground? In this @projectsyndicate.bsky.social piece, Luca Pellerano and I share some of our thinking on re-balancing social protection financing towards capital. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/h...

Great article on 'Why work is (still) not working for women' by CNN for International Women's Day with lots of data and quotes from WIEGO colleagues edition.cnn.com/2025/03/07/w...

1/ Keynes' (v hard headed) paper How to Pay for the War (1940) proposed something like abolishing the 2-child limit BECAUSE Britain was at war archive.org/details/in.e...

The French Just Want to Enjoy Their Retraite An american retirement wonk visits France. retirementincomejournal.com/article/the-...

This morning the justice secretary pointed to a “huge rise in the welfare budget” as justification for targeting benefit spending to make fiscal savings. So how big has the rise in welfare spending been?

We are currently supporting global networks of informal workers organisations with a three year capacity development journey on #socialprotection 1st round was on the Financing and Economics of SP. Initially designed to be in-person, we have just digitised them www.wiego.org/wp-content/u...

Join us in a bit to discuss a seminal book on non-contributory pensions across Latin America and the Caribbean lnkd.in/eqfm3TzQ

Looking forward to sharing my reflections as part of the launch of an important ECLAC book on 'Non-contributory pension systems in Latin America and the Caribbean: towards solidarity with sustainability' 21 Jan 11.00-13.00 Mexico City time Join here: us02web.zoom.us/j/82276624204

🤧 Früher hart erkämpft, heute selbstverständlich? Die #Lohnfortzahlung im #Krankheitsfall war 1956 Grund für den längsten #Streik der BRD-Geschichte. Warum das Thema aktueller ist, als viele denken, hört ihr in unserem Podcast "Geschichte wird gemacht"🎧 www.gewerkschaftsgeschichte.de/streiken-fur...

📢 New WIEGO podcast on Social Dialogue and Social Protection for Informal Workers out now! What is social dialogue? Why is it crucial in expanding social protection to informal workers? How can informal workers access social dialogue spaces? @cyrusafa.bsky.social

Price controls we need! "The [🇩🇪] left-wing party Die Linke even proposed to fix the price of kebabs at 4.90 euro" Fascinating article on the contested history of the kebab

Merry Christmas to all

Check out Part-I of a special edition of the weekly #socialprotection links, where 23 great minds share their suggested readings of 2024! www.ugogentilini.net/links-dec-13...

"The index revives the controversial ‘employing workers’ indicator, previously removed from the DBR after years of criticism .. for rewarding countries with the lowest level of regulations, including violators of workers’ rights, to make their economies friendlier to business"

We used to be a country. A proper country.

👏🇩🇪⚽️

Happy Sunday! Sharing our paper on enhancing the gender-responsiveness of social protection policies, with a strong emphasis a life-cycle approach to system-building. www.ilo.org/publications...

“Denied by AI,” the multi-part STAT News investigation of how #UnitedHealthcare used an opaque algorithmic system to deny care to people who needed it is a #mustread www.statnews.com/2023/03/13/m...

In depressing but totally unsurprising news: "Age, disability, marital status and nationality influence decisions to investigate claims"

1/2 🚨 Join @‌SP_Gateway on 05 December for the #SPorgWebinar "Harnessing social protection for gender equality, resilience and transformation" 🔗https://buff.ly/49jXjl4 🕛 08:00 (GMT-5) 🏢 UN Women, UNICEF, FCDO, HelpAge International and WIEGO +

This Thursday!

NEW PAPER: One common misconception about informal economies is that they do not pay taxes. In a new article, Nana Akua Anyidoho, Mike Rogan, Vanessa van den Boogaard and Max Gallien survey of 2500 informal workers in Accra to show that tax burdens can be real, regressive, & skewed: lnkd.in/ehpmRRgq

Excited to be in Tunis this week to develop a new TRANSFORM training on Extending Social Protection Coverage [to workers in informal employment but not only] Through Integrated Systems with many great social protection people

How to make #climateaction in #NDCs more inclusive through #socialprotection? Read here 👉 www.social-protection.org/gimi/Media.a....

Have a look at our blog on closing #gender gaps in #socialprotection coverage and adequacy, with some recommendations for gender-responsive social protection policies. 👉 Read here: lnkd.in/gwA2_ZqS

Looking forward to making a small contribution to this important upcoming webinar on 'harnessing social protection for gender equality, resilience and transformation', together with an all-star panel including @silkestaab.bsky.social Naila Kabeer, Lorraine Ndlovu, Cherian Mathews, Gloria Reyes Gómez

Otoh, check out "unconditional cash transfers".

If you ever feel down about Europe because you read too many noah smith tweets about dismal economic growth, I recommend listening to the wirecutter episode on butter, which is basically a 20 minute advertisement of "Euro Butter" as an antidote. www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...

Your weekly digest is out — check out the latest on #socialprotection from around the world. www.ugogentilini.net/links-nov-22...

"The missing middle"

New WIEGO podcast on how workers can leverage legal frameworks and administrative justice to advance social protection

Fascinating and important paper! Turns out undercutting worker power doesn't somehow increase formal work Who'd have thought

The ILO has created a dashboard on informal employment and it's extremely cool. www.unglobalaccelerator.org/resource/inf... I'm often struck by how much better data availability/curation is on these kind of issues are compared to, say, a decade ago @cgalian.bsky.social @ourworldindata.org

Sign up for @ugentilini.bsky.social's weekly social protection links for a brilliant way to keep up with a diverse and fast-moving sector - and to ring in the weekend every Friday

Fascinating thread on the (weakness) of unemployment benefits in the UK's social protection system ... AND how this is strongly intertwined with issues of health and disability. 1/2

NEW: Is Britain’s welfare too generous? Most countries pay workers who lose their jobs more than half of their previous salaries. In Britain, unemployment benefits are *12%* of the average wage @thetimes.com 1/5 www.thetimes.com/article/c28d...

I'm trying to build a starter pack of people working on social protection across the globe. Early days! But please share suggestions as more people join. go.bsky.app/FP9qJZV @scottsantens.com @jdcmedlock.bsky.social @ugentilini.bsky.social @rachelstrohm.bsky.social @floriangrant.bsky.social

📲 Introducing WIEGO's Social Security Subsidy Cost Calculator This simple calculator helps estimate the costs of different social security subsidy options for informal and self-employed workers, as well as the impacts of those on workers' benefits. wiego.shinyapps.io/social_secur...