Entries Tagged as 'Pensions'
4 August 2006 · Comments Off
As seen on Reuters:
By as early as 2036, the average lifespan in the developed world may be decades longer than it is now, Cambridge-based biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey told Reuters in a recent interview.[.]
De Grey said decades-longer lives may change traditional patterns of family life, careers, retirement, education and child-raising and force radical changes to pensions.
“These are things that people with expertise with financial planning need to take on board now. Industry has been taking for granted that if state pension ages change at all, it will be only by a small amount,” he said.[.]
Private and state pension systems are already creaking under the impact of an aging population and a declining birth rate. British companies have cut pension benefits and shut pension plans to new recruits.
For those of us here in the states, compare the concerns above to my previously-expressed preference that retirement ages / eligibility thresholds for Social Security be keyed to changes in average lifespan.
Tags:
Pensions
29 December 2005 · 1 Comment
There’s an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal that, for once, I mostly agree with:
In 2007 an accounting rule known as GASB 45 will phase in, requiring governments and agencies to account in the present for their future liabilities; this has begun to focus the minds of some state and local officials. But for now these huge long-term costs remain largely hidden from view. No nationwide data exist on their real value, but the state of Maryland estimates its long-term liabilities for retirement benefits at more than $20 billion.
New York’s beleaguered MTA at least deserves credit for trying to tackle this problem; ignoring it would in all likelihood have avoided last week’s illegal strike. Roger Toussaint, the leader of the transit union, boasted he would not sell out the union’s “unborn,” workers yet unhired and baptized into his union, by burdening them with higher pension costs. But one way or another, it is unborn citizens who will pay for these public pensions unless the country starts taking their costs seriously.
‘Nuff said.
Tags:
Pensions
