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Too Many Grannies? The Politics of Population Aging

By Sarah Sexton

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Until recently, pensions were primarily of interest to just two minorities: older people and actuaries. But no longer. As The Economist puts it, “for the first time, pensions are as hot as an issue can get.”1 Pensions are now prompting workers to put up the barricades and go on strike across Europe. They are triggering bankruptcies among topranking companies. They are filling newspaper pages and television screens.

Surely, headlines of people living longer and healthier lives should be a cause for celebration? Instead, media reports dwell on doom-and-gloom scenarios of masses of desperately poor, gray-haired folk who will be a burden on their families and society alike.

Sarah Sexton is at The Corner House, a research and solidarity group based in the United Kingdom that aims to support democratic and community movements for environmental and social justice. This piece is drawn from a recent Corner House Briefing by Richard Minns with Sarah Sexton entitled, “Too Many Grannies: Private Pensions, Corporate Welfare and Growing Insecurity.”

References

  1. “Britain’s Pensions Pickle,” The Economist (leader), (December 3, 2005), 11.