When I`m Sixty-Four - The Plot against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them

Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-0-691-11431-6
Verlag: Princeton University Press

Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Format (B × H): 162 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 660 g

A crisis is looming for baby boomers and anyone else who hopes to retire in the coming years. In When I'm Sixty-Four, Teresa Ghilarducci, the nation's leading authority on the economics of retirement, explains how to confront this crisis head-on, revealing the causes behind the increasingly precarious economics of old age in America and proposing a bold plan to guarantee retirement security for every working citizen.Retirement is one of the hallmarks of a prosperous, civilized market economy. Yet in America today Social Security is on the ropes. Government and employers are dismantling pension security, forcing older people to work longer. The federal government spends billions in exemptions for 401(k)s and other voluntary retirement accounts, yet retirement savings for most workers is falling. Ghilarducci takes an unflinching look at the eroding economic structure of retirement in America--and what she finds is alarming. She exposes the failures of pension regulators and the false hopes of privatized Social Security. She tells the ugly truth about risky 401(k) plans, do-it-yourself retirement schemes, and companies like Enron that have left employees without any retirement savings. Ghilarducci puts forward a sweeping plan to revive the retirement-income system, a plan that will ensure that, after forty years of work, every American will receive 70 percent of their preretirement earnings, guaranteed for life. No other book makes such a persuasive case for overhauling the pension and Social Security system in order to provide older Americans with the financial stability they have earned and deserve.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ghilarducci, Teresa

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Sozialpolitik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaft: Sachbuch, Ratgeber
• Rechtswissenschaften Arbeitsrecht Betriebliche Altersvorsorge, Vermögensbildung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction 1

Part I

The Attack on Retirement

Chapter 1: Hope for Retirement's Future 7

Principles for a Pension Rescue Plan 8

The Successes of the U.S. Retirement System 10

Three Beliefs That Threaten the Pension System 17

Individual Retirement Accounts: Current Reform Ideas Fall Short of a Vision to Successfully Preserve Retirement 23

Conclusion: Retirement's Future 25

Chapter 2: The Collapse of Retirement Income 26

What People Need in Retirement 26

What People Think They Know: Retirement Income Expectations 28

Predictions of Retirement Readiness 30

The Five Parts of a Retirement Wealth Portfolio: Four Are Failing 32

Distribution of Retirement Income and Distribution of Retirement Readiness 42

Women Face Special Pension Circumstances 44

Pension Futures for Workers with Moderate Incomes 53

Conclusion: Failures of the Current U.S. Retirement Income Security System 56

Chapter 3: When Bad Things Happen to Good Pensions?Promises Get Broken 58

Defined Benefit Pensions and the Road to a Middle-Class Retirement 59

Diminished Defined Benefit Plans 60

The Paradox of Overall Pension Stagnation 66

Workers? Demand for Defined Benefit Pension Plans 72

Why Workers Don't Like Defined Benefit Pension Plans 78

Lump Sums and Defined Benefit Plans: A Cure that Creates the Disease 80

Box 3.1. The Story of Lump Sum Payouts 82

Why Firms Like Defined Benefit Pensions 84

Box 3.2. The Story of the Miners? Union's Pensions: How Secondary Markets Are Transformed 87

Employers Who Do Not Sponsor Defined Benefit Plans Prefer 401(k) Plans?or Nothing 90

Legacy Costs: Defined Benefit Plans Do Not Kill Companies 92

What Should Government Policy Do? 95

Policy Options 96

Conclusion: When Bad Things Happen to Good Pensions 101

Appendix 3.1. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 103

The Pension Protection Act: Destroying the Defined Benefit System as the Way to Save It 108

The Effects of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 112

Conclusion: The Pension Protection Act of 2006 115

Chapter 4: Do-It-Yourself Pensions 116

Trends in 401(k) Plans 117

Advantages and Disadvantages of Defined Contribution Pensions 118

Longevity, Investment, Financial, Inflation, Political, and Poverty Risks 122

Box 4.1. Investment Management Fees: The Politics and Profits 128

Causes of the Shift to 401(k) Plans 130

Box 4.2. Are 401(k) Plans Cheaper Than Defined Benefit Pension Plans? 133

Conclusion: Do-It-Yourself Pensions 136

Chapter 5: The Future of Social Security 139

How Does Social Security Work? 139

Issues in Social Security Financing 143

Box 5.1. Why Did the Greenspan Commission Get It Wrong? 150

The Personal Savings Account Plan 154

Box 5.2. Advance Funding Retirement 156

Motives for and Likely Effects of Personal Savings Accounts 157

Fixes that Maintain Social Security's Basic Structure 164

Political History of the Social Security Program 169

The Debate over Social Security: Some Things Never Change 172

What Is New in the Social Security Debate? 175

Conclusion: The Future of Social Security 178

Part II: What Is Good about America's Retirement Income Security System

Chapter 6: The Short History of Old Age Leisure in America 181

Retirement Leisure by Generation 181

Repositioning the Retirement Idea 186

Praising and Promoting Work 188

Can the Elderly Work More? 190

Affordability: Are Pensions a Form of Fiscal Child Abuse? 191

America's Unique Pension Debate 192

Policy Implications of Repositioned Retirement Norms 194

Conclusion: Old Age Leisure in America 195

Chapter 7: The Distribution of Retirement Time:Who Really Gets to Retire? 197

The Value of Time and the Link between Paid Work and Health 198

Who Has the Most Retirement Time? 201

The Difference between Survivors and Nonsurvivors 210

Is Retiring Earlier Really the Ticket to Retirement-Time Equity?