At present, one of the important reasons why the social security system in western countries is in trouble lies in its incompatibility with the development of productivity and economy. Drawing lessons from the past, we believe that when designing the social security system in China, we must proceed from the specific national conditions in the primary stage of our country, based on the material resources provided by the national economy and the affordability of the government and society. Adhere to the basic policy of "low level, wide coverage and multi-level". Specifically, first of all, the basic level of protection should not be high, only the "basic" can be guaranteed, the truly unprotected ones should be protected, and some "super" basic parts should be eliminated. Second, the level of social security cannot be compared, and we can only proceed from the reality of each place. National overall planning must take into account the reality that the level of economic development varies greatly from place to place, avoid "the poor do things for the rich" and make a one-size-fits-all approach. Third, the financing level of the security fund can only be determined according to the actual ability of finance, enterprises and individuals to pay. Fourth, in order to meet the different needs of different levels, we must establish a multi-level and different forms of social security system, otherwise it will affect the consolidation and development of basic security.
At present, the security model of "social pooling combined with personal account" in China embodies the characteristics of combining self-security with public assistance, which not only highlights the responsibility of the state for basic insurance, but also emphasizes the obligations that individuals should do before receiving security benefits. It can be said that this model gives consideration to fairness and economic efficiency. It is more suitable for China's specific national conditions to adopt the mode of "unified account" as the financing mode of pension;
First, this model can alleviate the payment pressure brought by the aging population and create a more relaxed environment for the reform of state-owned enterprises. At present, China is experiencing an aging population, and the number of retired workers is increasing rapidly. According to the research of the research group of China Academy of Sciences, the problem of aging population in China has brought great pressure to the old-age security. Second, the implementation of the "unified account combination" partial accumulation system can take care of the differences in the level of protection on the premise of ensuring the basic livelihood of retired workers. Due to the great differences in the level of economic development in different parts of China, employees in different regions, different industries and different ownership components have different requirements for social security. The establishment of personal accounts can reflect the different requirements of different groups. It is worth noting that the current "unified account combination" model shows a prominent problem in the operation process, that is, the funding gap is large and the sustainability is threatened. Therefore, under the premise of adhering to the basic social security mode of "unified account and combination", we should also emphasize the combination with China's national conditions and form our own characteristics. There are two problems that cannot be ignored in this respect, one is the continuation of traditional family security, and the other is the utilization of new security resources, that is, the development and utilization of social and folk security, which can completely become an important supplement to formal state security to alleviate the financial pressure of formal security.
In addition, while accelerating the construction of the basic old-age insurance system (social pooling and individual accounts), the government should provide development space for commercial insurance. A complete social security system should be a multi-level social security system including basic old-age insurance, enterprise supplementary old-age insurance and commercial insurance. From the perspective of commercial insurance, it is completely independent of enterprises and is not affected by labor mobility; Commercial insurance is arranged independently by the workers according to their own income and insurance demand; Can provide insurance levels suitable for different groups; Commercial insurance can promote the development of capital market; Strategic adjustment and improvement of the internal governance structure of state-owned enterprises is the potential strength of the state-owned economy.
At the same time, the development of non-governmental organizations to supplement social insurance should be another important policy choice for the construction of social security system. Mutual cooperation, non-governmental donation and voluntary service also have a long history in China, and should be actively encouraged and supported at present.
The realization of social security function needs to raise a lot of funds to form social security fund. In the collection, distribution and use of social security funds, there will be a certain relationship between the state, employers, individuals and social members. This relationship is a special one, called social security economic relationship. Marxism holds that social security funds come from surplus value or surplus products and should be deducted from the total social products before personal income distribution. This deduction is manifested in social security contributions or social security taxes. The result of tax payment is that social security is included in the unified budget, and the government realizes the organization and management of the unified social security system through the unified budget, which is not only the requirement of establishing a unified social security system in China, but also proved by the social security financing model in most countries in the world.
In order to realize the requirement of establishing a unified social security system in China, the collection of social security funds in China, especially the collection of endowment insurance, should realize the transition from payment system to tax system. This change has the following advantages:
First, substituting taxes for fees can truly reflect the principle of fairness of basic pensions. Individuals or enterprises with high income or profits pay more taxes, while individuals or enterprises with low income or profits pay less social security taxes to help the poor, which embodies the basic principle of basic old-age care. Second, replacing fees with taxes is conducive to solving the current payment crisis of basic pensions. At present, the crisis of pension payment in China is not mainly caused by the aging population, but by the pension system. In fact, this is because the object of our country's pension is too narrow, mainly to protect the pension of employees in state-owned enterprises and institutions, while the aging of employees in state-owned enterprises is more serious. If the basic pension is expanded in the form of tax, and part of the expenses previously used to pay children or transfer payments are used as basic pension expenditures, it will be extremely beneficial to solve the current pension payment problem in China without increasing the average burden of labor. Third, it is conducive to building a unified, standardized and perfect basic old-age security system. First of all, a unified basic old-age insurance tax will help to break the compartmentalization among regions, departments and industries. At present, the form of multi-party fund-raising and self-determined standards in China has objectively caused the burden disparity between different regions, different departments, different industries and different enterprises due to different payment standards, which not only highlights the contradiction of uneven burden, but also hinders the rational flow of labor between regions and industries. The introduction of unified taxes and the unification of tax rates and tax collection agencies will completely change the above situation. Secondly, it is helpful to establish a unified management system and an effective supervision and restriction mechanism. Through the collection of unified taxes, the tax authorities are specifically responsible for the collection of taxes, and the income is included in the unified budget. On this basis, a special agency will be further established to be responsible for the management and use of funds, and a mechanism for mutual restraint and supervision between the collection, management and use departments will be formed.