Sunday, July 08, 2007

Calls for a fully-funded Social Security pension

Free Market News Network (July 2) interviewed Peter Schiff, who said that the current rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul pension system will unravel in a few years, because of demographics. Newt Gingrich (former Speaker of the House) thinks a funded pension system should be introduced, but control of the funds should be out of the hands of the government.

This is very similar to proposals put forward in the UK by the Pensions Reform Group, chaired by former minister for welfare reform, Frank Field MP. The working name for it is a "Universal Protected Pension". The proposals betray the same worry as Gingrich implies, which is that the government may find a way to steal all or part of the fund.

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