I love any proposal that puts my preferences clearly in the center. And Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator and presidential candidate, did just that with her plans for Social Security.

Just to remind you about Social Security’s finances, the program’s actuaries project a deficit over the next 75 years of 2.78% of taxable payrolls. As shown in the figure below, this deficit reflects the combination of rising costs and constant levels of income. The increasing costs are the result of a slow-growing labor force and the retirement of baby boomers, which raises the ratio of retirees to workers. Social Security’s deficit can be eliminated either by bringing up the income rate or lowering the cost rate in the figure below.