Decisions made early in Social Security's history resulted in benefits in excess of contributions for early cohorts. This approach gave away the Trust Fund and the resulting interest that could have accumulated, which has increased the size of the payroll tax required to finance the program. This paper finds that, for the Old-Age and Survivors portion of Social Security, the Missing Trust Fund of $29.5 trillion is driven by the excess benefits given to early cohorts. Should tax increases be considered to improve the program's finances, a broad tax – such as the income tax – could be appropriate since these early payments benefitted all of society.

中文翻译：

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如何支付社会保障局缺失的信托基金？

在社会保障历史的早期做出的决定所带来的收益超过了早期人群的供款。这种方法放弃了信托基金以及可能积累的利息，从而增加了为该计划筹集资金所需的工资税规模。本文发现，对于社会保障的“老年人和幸存者”部分而言，缺少29.5万亿美元的信托基金是由为早期人群提供的额外收益所驱动。如果考虑增加税收以改善计划的财务状况，则应采用广泛的税收（例如所得税），因为这些早期付款使整个社会受益。