An International Meeting of the American Accounting Association American Accounting Association 2006 Annual Meeting August 6–9, 2006 Washington, D.C.

Cynthia Jackson
Northeastern University

James Maroney
Northeastern University

Tim Rupert
Northeastern University

Abstract: Increased life expectancies and decreased birthrates in the United States over the past fifty years have placed enormous financial pressure on the Social Security and Medicare systems. Given the pay-as-you-go nature of these systems, reforms are needed to ensure their financial solvency. Our study examines the acceptance of proposals currently being discussed to reform the Social Security system. Participants of our study included the following four groups: (1) younger black taxpayers, (2) younger white taxpayers, (3) older black taxpayers, and (4) older white taxpayers. We chose these four groups because prior research suggests that these groups may have divergent views. Our results suggest that although there were significant differences in the agreement of the groups for some proposals, there was also agreement among the groups on several proposals. In general, the differences between the generations were more pronounced than the differences between the racial groups.

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