Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T18:30:49.798Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - Exit from Work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2022

Avner Offer
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

Of several ways to provide for old age, the best is to be rich. Pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) pensions are funded by taxation and do not need to lock in the future. British and American safety net pensions remain very low. American economists (Friedman, Feldstein) pushed to privatise pensions, disregarding risk and high costs. Deindustrialisation undermined solid corporate and public sector pensions. Pre-invested private pensions only work for the better off. Popular resistance has preserved PAYGO. Pre-funded pensions, touted as best, fail because pension consumption cannot be hoarded. Headline yields are halved by transaction costs. Stock markets are too small to support social transfers, and PAYGO is an order of magnitude cheaper. Its real return is often higher than stockmarkets. Financialisation of old age is an exploitative deceit. PAYGO is informal, flexible, and robust.

Type
Chapter
Information
Understanding the Private–Public Divide
Markets, Governments, and Time Horizons
, pp. 88 - 116
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Exit from Work
  • Avner Offer, University of Oxford
  • Book: Understanding the Private–Public Divide
  • Online publication: 14 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108866415.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Exit from Work
  • Avner Offer, University of Oxford
  • Book: Understanding the Private–Public Divide
  • Online publication: 14 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108866415.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Exit from Work
  • Avner Offer, University of Oxford
  • Book: Understanding the Private–Public Divide
  • Online publication: 14 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108866415.007
Available formats
×