Channel Four exposes Greek "economics"

John_Pierpoint

Linton wrote: »

And no one can know the real cost until the payments are actually made. Actuaries, economists and accountants dont seem to have a very good record in predicting the future. The key problem is making an irrevocable commitment now for payments perhaps 30-40 years in the future.

20-30 years ago some money purchase schemes provided a guaranteed return on investment and many more gave guaranteed annuity rates. They were very badly hit when inflation and investment returns dropped. That's what did for Equitable Life, other failing pension companies were quietly taken over and merged into larger ones with more resources.

Yes but underneath all these projections are governments playing fast and loose with the money supply, to buy themselves back into power within 5 years.
S0d the future, s0d the children and grandchildren, get the suckers to vote for us/me again.
Have you all forgotten the last election already; nobody wanted to talk about the hot breath of the economic dragon, still lurking at the mouth of his cave - they kept on talking pipe dreams or rearranging the deck chairs - depending an the analogy you prefer.

Germany and Switzerland can be oppressive places in which to live, but their populations do not all believe they can live in fairy land, by winning the X-Factor.

michaels

The only thing on the funded/unfunded argument I disagree with is that we are not living in a closed economy. In theory we could all save now in Yuan or whatever and then call upon Chinese resource during our retirement to make up for the fact that we won't have enough UK workers for them to support us form a proportion of their salaries.

John_Pierpoint

I think you will find that the RMB is not a very convertible currency - unless your government has done a deal with PRC from a position of weakness such as Argentina.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/31/china-argentina-yuan-markets-currency-dollar.html

CLAPTON

michaels wrote: »

The only thing on the funded/unfunded argument I disagree with is that we are not living in a closed economy. In theory we could all save now in Yuan or whatever and then call upon Chinese resource during our retirement to make up for the fact that we won't have enough UK workers for them to support us form a proportion of their salaries.

yes, one rather under discuused issue is the efficiency of funded and unfunded schemes on the 'now' economy

whether greater growth occurs by direct (funded) investment whether at home or abroad or whether the reduction in taxation (occuring from unfunded schemes) allows greater wealth to accrue.

interesting
yes it might be more efficient to invest in chinese economy so they benefit now from the investment and then reap the benefit in the future

John_Pierpoint

We tried that in Edwardian times - but we invested in that dynamic economy already the world's 3rd most successful in gdp per head.

Argentina.

atush

I saw this program and thought it was a hoot. I had known much about the greek system, but didn't know hairdressers retired at 55 with 90% pension lol.

And why this is turning into PS pensions debate (that we already have two threads going) I am not sure.

drc

harryhound wrote: »

How about retiring at 54 with a 90% pension from a hazardous job:

Ladies Hairdresser.


or be a civil servant and leave your pension to your unmarried daughter?

Can this be watched online (what was the programme called) or was it a news segment?

atush

Channel4OD

John_Pierpoint

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/go-greek-for-a-week/4od