Institutional, social and economic aspects of the sustainability of the social security system in Spain

Abstract

Debates about the economic sustainability of public social security systems have been heavily influenced by discourses aimed at discrediting public social security mechanisms, creating alarm about their future. There is a clear economic, political, and ideological interest in dismantling public social protection systems, under the premise of their takeover by private actors. In this way, they direct the debate on sustainability toward the relationship between increasing life expectancy and the falling birth rate, which intuitively might raise doubts about the economic viability of social security. However, they ignore factors such as economic growth, increased productivity, or the increase in the active labor force, as well as the shift of income to the economic elites or the increase in social inequality, as complementary factors that can ensure its future sustainability. This text analyzes the normative, institutional, and economic premises that ensure the sustainability of our social security model.