When I'm sixty-four : the plot against pensions and the plan to save them / Teresa Ghilarducci.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ghilarducci, Teresa.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pensions--United States.

Pensions.

United States.

Social security--United States.

Social security.

Physical Description:

x, 374 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2008]

Contents:

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? 212

Equalizing Retirement Time with Disability Insurance 215

Conclusion: Who Really Gets to Retire? 215

Chapter 8 Working: The New Retirement's Effect on the Economy 217

Box 8.1 Age Is in the Eye of the Beholder, the Researcher, the Lawyer, and the Retailer 218

Older Americans Are Working More 219

The Quality of Older Workers Jobs: More Push than Pull Gets the Elderly to Work 223

How 401(k)s Destabilize the Economy 226

Pension Surprises and Work 230

Conclusions and Policy Implications: The New Retirement 233

Part III The Rescue Plan for Retirement

Chapter 9 The American Labor Movement: Advocating Retirement and Obtaining Pensions 237

Unions Opt for Employee Benefits 238

Are Pensions Deferred Wages or Payments for Depreciation? 240

What Unions Do: Explaining the Union Pension Advantage 245

Unions and Legacy Costs in Defined Benefit Plans 249

Organized Labor and Social Security 252

Labor's Capital 253

Conclusion: Unions and Pensions 258

Chapter 10 Rescue Plan for American Workers' Retirement: Averting the End of Retirement 260

Guaranteed Retirement Accounts 263

GRA Efficiency, Fairness, and Shared Risk 266

Failure of the Current Tax Policy 275

Are Guaranteed Retirement Accounts Politically Feasible? 280

Box 10.1 A Persistent Policy Recommendation: Raising the Retirement Age 284

Conclusion: The Final Bottom Line 288

Appendix 10.1 Guaranteed Retirement Accounts: Questions and Answers 290.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [341]-364) and index.

ISBN:

9780691114316

0691114315

OCLC:

181072633