Incredible if true:

Several webloggers have commented on or linked to an American Prospect report on Britain's attempt to privatize old-age pensions back in 1984. We thought the article was interesting, but this excerpt got us wondering: (emp add)

For all the fanfare that surrounds the Bush administration’s efforts to present a bold new idea on pension reform, the truth is that it is not new at all. In fact, the proposal looks suspiciously like the plan set in train during Thatcher’s ?rst term in 1979 and which has since led Britain to the brink of a crisis. Since then, the nation’s basic pension, which is paid for out of tax receipts, has shrunk dramatically. The United Kingdom has the stingiest state pension program of any G8 nation ...

Any G8 nation? Here is the list of G8 nations:

• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan
• Russia
• United Kingdom
• United States

More "stingy" than Russia's? It's not clear what this means. Later in the report, we read:

the basic state pension in the United Kingdom ... is today lower than that in all but four other European countries: Portugal, Greece, Belgium, and Ireland.

Is Russia considered part of Europe? Generally, no. So it looks as if we can conclude from the report that the state pension in the United Kingdom is lower than that in Russia. (Russis is nowhere mentioned explicitly in the article.)

Now there are other factors in play here: Private (employer supplied) pensions; the private accounts themselves. So it's hard to say for sure what a retiree in the United Kingdom is getting (compared to a counterpart in Russia). But still, comparing state pensions alone, it's remarkable that Russia's is better than the UK's. (If true. We still find it hard to believe.)

posted by Quiddity at 1/12/2005 09:41:00 AM