Banking on Death or, Investing in Life: the History and Future of Pensions

Banking on Death or, Investing in Life: the History and Future of Pensions

by RobinBlackburn (Author)

Synopsis

The onset of globalization and the ageing of populations have encouraged efforts to privatize the funding of retirement funds, putting at risk the public provision of pensions in many countries and giving pension and insurance funds great financial power. In Banking on Death Robin Blackburn shows that the private funds enjoy vital public subsidy, in the shape of major tax breaks, yet typically these funds fail to give their policy-holders a say. The author argues that tax concessions should be confined to those funds which adhere to socially-committed and sutainable investment programmes. Rival pension proposals are being debated today in many countries with major implications for the distribution of economic power. Robin Blackburn offers a lucid survey of the debates on the future of social security in the United States; the plans for stakeholder pensions in Britain and the experience of social funds in Sweden, Chile and Singapore.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 376
Edition: 1st
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 25 Jun 2002

ISBN 10: 1859847951
ISBN 13: 9781859847954

Media Reviews
Blackburn is particularly good at disentangling the different dynamics that make the pensions problem so intractable for mature, ageing economies. --Sir Howard Davis, Guardian

Blackburn does an excellent job of tracing recent developments. -- Economist

If Karl Marx were alive today, he would be in the British Library devouring everything he could find on pension funds: the new fuel of global capitalism. Robin Blackburn has read everything, and in this urgent and brilliant book, proposes a new strategy that unites workers of the world around the democratic control of their savings. --Mike Davis

One of the best books I have read on pension funds. -- Independent

. .. required reading for all those interested in the pensions industry. That is, all of us. --Barry Marshall

In stormy waters and under darkening skies, Banking on Death stands like a lighthouse, providing a beam of orientation on a solid rock of research. --Goran Therborn

This is an important and disturbing book. Blackburn is a master of the complexities of pension provision. He unsettles belief in a commercial fix to the challenge of social insurance. --Richard Sennett

Plenty of food for thought. -- Times Literary Supplement
Author Bio
Robin Blackburn teaches at the New School in New York and the University of Essex in the UK. He is the author of many books, including The Making of New World Slavery, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, Age Shock, Banking on Death, and The American Crucible.