Social Security is hot on the hustings these days.(possible social security coordination agreements between U.S., other countries)(Brief Article)

* Social Security is hot on the hustings these days. But while there's been haggling over retirement savings accounts, one crucial element of reform has been overlooked. As a new study by the Center for Immigration Studies demonstrates, Social Security "totalization"--agreements that coordinate U.S. Social Security with comparable programs in other countries, so that international workers are not double-taxed--is a disaster, at least with regard to Mexico. Most bilateral totalization agreements assume that participants are employed by corporations that have transferred them abroad (legally) for a specified period of time; they assume that employees and employers have been contributing to social security all along in their respective countries. And nearly all of the U.S.'s totalization agreements are with developed nations with retirement benefits similar to ours, thus ...