Britain's Go At Pension Privatization

With all of this talk about social security, many analysts and politicians are looking to examples from abroad to either back their proposals or disprove others' proposals. One particular case getting a lot of attention is Great Britain. In her American Prospect article, "A Bloody Mess," author Norma Cohen discusses Britian's go at pension privatization approximately twenty years ago. In fact, it appears that there are basic similarities between what Britain enacted, and what President Bush may propose in the very near future; that is, a cut in guarenteed benefits with the option for beneficiaries to make up for those cuts by earning high returns on private accounts. Check out the article to see why there is now growing consensus in Britain that the privatization policy must be reversed. Paul Krugman also discusses the issue in a column today titled "The British Invasion."
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