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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Should the economic life course be redesigned?
— old age security in a time of transition | | Author(s) | John Myles, Debra Street |
| Journal title | Canadian Journal on Aging, vol 14, no 2, Summer 1995 |
| Pages | pp 335-359 |
| Keywords | Pensions ; Labour economics ; Retirement policy ; Canada. |
| Annotation | The "last great pension debate" in Canada came to an end in the early 1980s, but is now about to resume. However, the terms of the debate have changed significantly. As a contribution to the debate, this paper aims to identify emergent positions and the new social, political and economic conditions to which they are a response. "Conservative" strategies have emphasised privatisation of the pension function and greater emphasis on providing income-tested benefits to older people on low incomes. Now "progressive" alternatives have advocated a redesign of the welfare state to allow for a more flexible model of retirement and the economic life course more generally. Each is a response to real changes in the fiscal capacities of governments, the conditions for successful economic performance and the distribution of economic risk among age groups. Data from the Survey of Consumer Finances demonstrates how the age distribution of economic well-being has changed since the 1960s when the current welfare state was designed. The authors' aim is not to resolve the debate, but to set in context and identify the main assumptions and models underlying alternative strategies for reform. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-970821259 A |
| Classmark | JJ: WH: G5: 7S |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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