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Author Topic: Why good pension plans are important for children  (Read 2636 times)
Zanthius
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Why good pension plans are important for children
« on: April 20, 2018, 08:19:06 pm »



https://www.archania.org/governance/#Good_pension_plans_might_be_important_for_the_well-being_of_children
« Last Edit: April 22, 2018, 11:23:35 am by Zanthius » Logged
Zanthius
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Re: Why good pension plans are important for children
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2018, 02:03:43 pm »

I have also added a graph now, which shows how corruption is correlated with pension plans.

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Death 999
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Re: Why good pension plans are important for children
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2018, 03:31:20 pm »

lower corruption index is... more corruption, I'm guessing?
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Elestan
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Re: Why good pension plans are important for children
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2018, 04:47:32 pm »

I have also added a graph now, which shows how corruption is correlated with pension plans.

It seems to me that without a more detailed statistical analysis, this graph invites the reader to infer causation where it has not been shown, and is therefore more likely to be misleading than informative.  There are a great many factors that could influence how corrupt a country is, and without controlling for them, you can't know whether pension plans have any effect at all.

I also checked the source page of the assertions in the OP linking pensions with attitudes toward children, and the section on pensions cites no references to support its claims.  That doesn't mean it's false, of course; just that it hasn't proven its point, and there may be more effective courses of action.  For example, encouraging cultural acceptance of and access to birth control could have a far greater impact in developing countries than trying to get them to establish pension schemes.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2018, 06:11:15 pm by Elestan » Logged
Elestan
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Re: Why good pension plans are important for children
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2018, 06:05:09 pm »

As for my views on pensions,  I think that traditional pension systems (as usually seen in the U.S.) have a number of drawbacks.  Some of these include:

  • Job inflexibility:  If pensions are tied to staying for many years at the same job, it makes it hard for employees to move around and change jobs, giving their employers extra leverage over them.  This makes them a bad fit for the evolving 'gig economy'.
  • Age inflexibility:  The financial math of pensions requires making assumptions about peoples' lifespans.  If too many people live longer than expected, they can bankrupt their pension plans.
  • Perverse incentives:  When negotiating retirement benefits vs. other compensation, current employer officers have a perverse incentive to save money in the present by making overly generous promises of payment in the future, when they will be somebody else's problem.
  • Dependency:  Since pension schemes leave retirees tied to a particular company, they remain vulnerable to that employer's financial troubles.
  • Intolerance to fluctuation:  Since many pension schemes are pay-as-you-go, if the employer's income stream ever shrinks, there is a high risk that it will be unable to meet its retiree obligations.

This is not to say that we shouldn't have some kind of safety net, but the traditional pension plan only works well if you assume that people will stay in one place and work one job their whole lives, that companies and cities never shrink or go bankrupt, that lifespans are predictable, and that employers always take a long-term view.  These assumptions may have been more true 60-70 years ago, but they are increasingly not true in today's economy.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2018, 06:18:43 pm by Elestan » Logged
Zanthius
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Re: Why good pension plans are important for children
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2018, 06:48:51 am »

I also checked the source page of the assertions in the OP linking pensions with attitudes toward children, and the section on pensions cites no references to support its claims.

I was also a bit surprised when I tried to search about this. I also couldn't find anything. If anybody knows of any research articles or material related to this, it would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: After searching for many hours, I have added a few references now, although I admit they might not be the best references to support my claims in a so general way.

[30]    M. A. P. Stephens, A. L. Townsend, L. M. Martire, and J. A. Druley, “Balancing parent care with other roles: Interrole conflict of adult daughter caregivers,” The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol. 56, pp. P24–P34, jan 2001.

[31]    Y. Kadoya and M. S. R. Khan, “Can concern for the long-term care of older parents explain son preference at birth in india?,” Journal of Women & Aging, vol. 29, pp. 254–266, mar 2016.

[32]    B. S. A. YEOH, C. H. LENG, V. T. K. DUNG, and C. YIEN, “Between two families: the social meaning of remittances for vietnamese marriage migrants in singapore,” Global Networks, vol. 13, pp. 441–458, sep 2013.

That doesn't mean it's false, of course; just that it hasn't proven its point, and there may be more effective courses of action.  For example, encouraging cultural acceptance of and access to birth control could have a far greater impact in developing countries than trying to get them to establish pension schemes.

Depends on what you try to accomplish. If your main objective is to decrease population growth, it might be more efficient with easier access to birth control.  However, if my assumption about cultural attitudes toward children is correct, this isn't necessarily just about decreasing population growth, but also about human rights and about making a more decent society for children.

Cultural acceptance is of course important, but that doesn't relieve you of the economic stress you are exposed to from having to take care of your parents.

As for my views on pensions,  I think that traditional pension systems (as usually seen in the U.S.) have a number of drawbacks.  Some of these include:

Not all of us live in the US, and I think some of the other countries listed higher in the Mercer Global Pension Index, might have somewhat better systems. It seems rational to try to learn from the countries which have had the most functional/successful pension schemes.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2018, 05:38:01 pm by Zanthius » Logged
Zanthius
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Re: Why good pension plans are important for children
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2018, 01:41:36 pm »

lower corruption index is... more corruption, I'm guessing?

Yes... maybe somewhat counterintuitively a higher score means less corruption. Maybe they should have called it the lack of corruption perception index. Smiley
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