Comments on the Presentation:
"Saving Social Security"
by Peter A. Diamond, Ph.D.
H. William Batt
[Notes taken at the Henry George Fall 2005 Lecture, University of
Scranton, 13 October. Reprinted from
GroundSwell, January-February 2006]
The 20th Annual Henry George Lecture and John Kelly Dinner took
place on October 13, 2005, the speaker being Professor of Economics
Peter A. Diamond of MIT. As is the common practice, Professor
Diamond spent the day in Scranton, talking with the Omicron Delta
Epsilon Economics Honor Society and the assembled interested faculty
members. In addition, several board representatives of the
Schalkenbach Foundation were present on account of the origin of the
lecture series, an initial bequest in the early 1980s to the
University in the name of Henry George. This year, the Foundation
was represented by Wyn Achenbaum, Bill Batt and, of course, Scranton
U. Resident Professor Hong Nguyen. Vye Kelly, the widow of former
Board member Jack Kelly, was again present as always. Professor
Diamond proved to be an adept and accessible guest, and began his
presentation by not only acknowledging George but called special
attention to Progress and Poverty's dedication:
To those who, seeing the vice and misery that spring from
the unequal distribution of wealth and privilege, feel the
possibility of a higher social state and would strive for its
attainment.
The evening lecture was on the subject of Professor Diamond's
current focus of attention, "Saving Social Security." Much
of the debate about the circumstances and future of Social Security
involve forecasting assumptions of a statistical nature. It is
therefore appropriate that Professor Diamond, who has an
undergraduate degree in mathematics from Yale and is now deeply
involved in econometric instruments, should have taken on this
challenge. His publications on these matters have numbered in the
dozens, and his CV suggests that he has been interested in these
questions for the past three decades. It was certainly helpful to
listen to Professor Diamond lay out the mathematical trends that
lead people, accurately or not, to debate the future of this
venerable program.
It would not do the speaker justice to attempt to summarize his
presentation and argument more than to say that only modest tweaking
is necessary to insure the continued success of the American Social
Security System well into the future. The colored graphics on which
the presentation depended were brushed through quickly as Dr.
Diamond spoke, and only by reading the material closely might those
with greater interest have succeeded in understanding all that was
offered. Nonetheless, the assembled students and guests from the
community of Scranton - perhaps a few hundred in number - certainly
came away with enough understanding of the issues that their
anxieties could be allayed.
Professor Diamond showed himself to be an adept econometrician and
an able speaker and writer. His biography shows him to be at the
very top of his discipline several times over: an endowed chair at
MIT, past president of the American Economics Association and
several other academic organizations, a long record of publications
and consultancies, several awards, and so on. His focus however was
much more on the mathematics of the Social Security system than upon
any considerations of social justice.
Henry George's concern was less mathematics but social justice,
and his conceptual ability is what marks him as a seminal thinker
and gives his ideas lasting value. But the rise in the availability
of statistical data, as well as the growth in the power of computers
to make a persuasive case for the Georgist agenda, suggests that our
movement also needs its econometricians. We should hope that before
too long we will have among our members analysts with the facility
to explain ideas statistically as well as Professor Diamond could.