单选题{{B}}Passage Five{{/B}} Reforming the Social Security retirement program is an issue of enormous practical importance. Yet it remains the missing piece in American policy analysis. At a time when the Congress and the Administration are considering ways to reform welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, and the income tax, elected officials are still unwilling to confront the serious problems of our Social Security system. Eventually, however, its deteriorating financial condition will force major reforms. Whether those reforms are good or bad, whether they deal with the basic economic problems of the system or merely protect the solvency of existing institutional arrangements will depend in part on whether we, as economists, provide the appropriate intellectual framework for analyzing reform alternatives. Major policy changes that affect the public at large can only happen in our democracy when there is widespread public support for the new direction of policy. In the field of economics, the views of the media, of other private-sector opinion leaders, and of politicians and their advisers, depend very much on their perception of what economists believe feasible and correct. Fundamental policy reforms in a complex area like social security also require the development of technical expertise, both in and out of government, about the options for change and their likely consequences. Fortunately, an expanding group of economists is now thinking and writing about social security reform. My remarks today greatly benefit from what they have written and from my conversations with many of them. I began to do my research on the effects of Social Security reform nearly 25 year ago [Feldstein, 1974, 1975]. A central concept in my analysis of Social Security has been the notion of "Social Security wealth," which I defined as the present actuarial value of the Social Security benefits to which the current adult population will be entitled at age 65 [or are already entitled to if they are older than 65] minus the present actuarial value of the Social Security taxes that they will pay before reaching that age. Social Security wealth has now grown to about ＄11 trillion or more than 1.5 times GDP. Since this is equivalent to more than ＄50000 for every adult in the country, the value of Social Security wealth substantially exceeds all other assets for the vast majority of American households. In the aggregate, Social Security wealth exceeds three-fourths of all private financial wealth, as conventionally measured. Social Security wealth is of course not real wealth but only a claim on current and future taxpayers. Instead of labeling this key magnitude "Social Security wealth," I could have called it the nation's "Social Security liability." Like ordinary government debt, Social Security wealth has the power to crowd out private capital accumulation; and Social Security wealth will continue to grow as long as our current system remains unchanged, displacing an ever larger stock of capital. The ＄11 trillion Social Security liability is three times as large as the official national debt. Although I certainly welcome the current political efforts to shrink future budget deficits, it is worth noting that, even if the traditional deficit is eliminated in the year 2002, so that the national debt is then no longer increasing, the national debt in the form of the Social Security liability is likely to increase that year by about ＄ 300 billion. Looking further into the future, the aggregate Social Security liability will grow as the population expands, as it become relatively older, and as income rises. Government actuaries predict that, under existing law, the tax rate required to pay each year's Social Security benefit will rise over the next 50 years from the present level of slightly less than 12 percent to more than 18 percent, and perhaps to as much as 23 percent.

单选题 His imperative tone of voice reveals his arrogance and arbitrariness.

单选题In general, the amount that a student spends for housing should be held to one-fifth of the total for living expenses ______. A. acceptable B. advisable C. available D. applicable

单选题Hidden hotel costs can be a source of frustration to the frugal traveler.

单选题On this {{U}}barren{{/U}} place on Aikhanom Hill, overlooking riel& peppered with land mines, soldiers come to lay a stone or say a prayer for friends lost in years of war.

单选题The police ______ to emergencies in just a few minutes when the accident happened. A. responded B. replied C. adjusted D. appealed

单选题Customer service stands out as the area where WestNet falls most behind, with 43.8 percent of its users in the survey saying "its security does not come______". A. up to scratch B. up in the air C. up to date D. up to the minute

单选题The two countries signed an agreement to reduce their nuclear______. A. tornadoes B. armories C. hectares D. heretics

单选题The building will be ______ within the next two months.

单选题India's internal structure can never be ______ with Europe's.

单选题Individuals may at various points in their lives experience discrimination in the allo cation of resources either______of being too old or too young. A. at the risk B. to the point C. in the case D. on the ground

单选题 As to the living environment, bacterial needs vary, but most of them grow best in a slightly acid ______.

单选题"This park has more than 200 waterfalls that are 15 feet or higher, And 150 of them have never been mapped or photographed," says park historian Lee Whittlesey. "Now that's a ______ to the size of Yellowstone." A. proposition B. hypothesis C. ceremony D. testimony

单选题Livestock breeders are ______ much thought and ingenuity to the improvement of this strain.

单选题______, the factories had not closed, and those who needed work most were given a chance to survive during the econmic disaster. A. Unintentionally B. Mercifully C. Importunately D. Tragically

单选题It ______ me to see him in such a bad health. He was such an energetic and strong young man only several months ago.

单选题His compass proved______ to him when he was lost in unknown country.

单选题She has to be very______because she hasn't much money.

单选题 Yeats was beginning to use a vocabulary freshly minted from the treasury of Gaelic literature, and many of the shorter poems in The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics (1892) deal with a mythology Ireland had well nigh forgotten and England never known. For Arthur and his Round Table Yeats substituted the very different Conchubar and his Red Branch Warriors, and Finn and his Fenians. The Red Branch cycle of legends included Fergus, whom Ness had tricked out of his kingdom so that her son Conchubar could rule over Ulster in his stead, and in Fergus and the Druid Yeats makes him avid for dreaming wisdom. Fergus was the unwitting agent of the doom of the Sons of Usna, Naoise the lover of Deirdre and his brothers Ardan and Ainle, who had accompanied the lovers to Scotland when they fled from Conchubar's wrath, for Deirdre was Conchubar's intended bride. Fergus had persuaded them to return against the wishes of Deirdre and had been tricked out of acting as their safe conduct. He joined with Maeve, Queen of Connaught, after this, in her raid on Ulster, in which Cuchulain achieved his great fame as Ulster's champion. Cuchulain is the Achilles of the Irish Saga, and he appears throughout Yeats's plays and poems, as warrior, as husband of Emer, as lover of Eithne Inguba, and of Aoife, as the unknowing killer of his own son and finally as victim of the sea.