According to http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-111.pdf life expectancy for a UK male has gone from about 70 to about 75 in between 1981 & 2011 - say 7,5% increase, I can't find the exact figures at the moment but productivity per worker over the same period has increased by much much more. If we could afford final salary pensions in 1981 (and we could) why can't we today? (clue - the answer is in my preceeding mails ;))
Damian PS I know there are other factors such as migration and often a shorter working life in white collar jobs, but the point is the same On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 3:55 PM, Damian Walsh <pussaydam...@gmail.com> wrote: > As I said, "invest[ment] into productive enterprise" - if you are a baker, > you probably won't be able to manually make bread anymore (in economically > significant quantities) once your in your 70s - if though you invest in a > bread making machine with some of your surplus during your productive years > then the bread continues to be made after you are in your dotage, so you can > continue to eat even though you are no longer directly productive. > > British and American business preferred to spend the surplus that should > have been set aside for pension investment on excess profits (mostly > dividends to their shareholders) rather than on productive investment. > > Like I said I have a great deal of respect for actuarial science, and I > don't think there are any surprises in life expectancy today that weren't > forseen (and factored into pension calculations) 25/ 30 years ago. The big > "surprise" for companies and therir pensioners is that we don't live in a > perpetual bull-market - but then again when you look at the share of profits > in our GDP I think that the companies knew that from the beginning! > > Damian > > PS - Class traitor! Wages slaves do what the're told..... > > On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 10:32 AM, Richard Naef < > rich...@triumph-computers.co.uk> wrote: > >> >> > >> > Final Salary pensions are perfectly sustainable if they are >> > properly funded, and if the funding is invested into >> > productive enterprise (for want of a better word). >> >> I have to say I couldn't agree less. Contributions make up a small part >> of >> the final pot., it is the predictions of growth, the poor investment >> polices, enormous profits and income of the people who manage them and >> increase in life expectancy that have caused the major part of the >> problem. >> Work for say 20 years at a company, retire at 65 (or earlier) and live for >> 20 years or more on the salary you finish on, do the mathematics old chap. >> I have been a private consumer of financial products for over 30 years now >> and have seen enough projections and graphs to fill the devils punch bowl, >> yet still need to work. >> Its bad enough in the public sector - which I pay for, but also private >> companies have had to top them up, taking money out of profits, again >> which >> I pay for. >> >> ttfn >> >> Richard >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leedslist mailing list >> Info and options: >> http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist >> To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org >> >> MARCHING ON TOGETHER (There's it) >> > > _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org MARCHING ON TOGETHER (There's it)
