首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
In early June, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—the club of the world’s wealthy and almost wealt
In early June, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—the club of the world’s wealthy and almost wealt
admin
2017-03-15
66
问题
In early June, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—the club of the world’s wealthy and almost wealthy nations—released a 208-page document perversely titled Pensions at a Glance. Inside is a rundown of how generous OECD members are to their burgeoning ranks of retirees.
The US is near the bottom, with the average wage earner able to count on a government-mandated pension for just 52.4% of what he got (after taxes) in his working days—and higher-income workers even less. But the picture at the other end of the scale (dominated by Continental Europe) is misleading. Most of these governments haven’t put aside money for pensions. As the ranks of retirees grow and workforces do not, countries will have to either renege on commitments or tax the hides off future workers.
What the OECD data seem to suggest is that you can run a retirement plan that’s fiscally sound but stingy, or you can make big promises that will eventually go sour. The US fits mostly in the former category—for all the gnashing of teeth about Social Security, its funding problems are modest by global standards.
But is that really the choice? Actually, no. At least one country appears to have found a better way. In the Netherlands—"the globe’s No. 1 pensions country," says influential retirement-plan consultant Keith Ambachtsheer—the average retiree can count on a pension equal to 96.8% of his working income. Ample money is set aside to fund pensions, and it is invested prudently but not timidly. Companies contribute to employees’ accounts but aren’t stuck with profit-killing obligations if their business shrinks or the stock market tanks.
The Dutch have steered a middle way between irresponsible Continental generosity and practical Anglo-American stinginess. They have also, to lapse into pension jargon, split the difference between DB and DC plans. In a defined-benefit (DB) plan, workers are promised a retirement income, and the sponsor—usually a corporation or government—is on the hook to provide it. In a defined-contribution (DC) plan, the worker and sometimes the employer set aside money and hope it will be enough.
The big problem with DB is that sponsors are prone to lowball or ignore the true cost. In the US, where corporate pensions provide a key supplement to Social Security, Congress has felt the need to pass multiple laws aimed at preventing companies from underfunding them. In response, some companies spent billions shoring up their funds; many others simply stopped offering pensions. Just since 2004, at least 66 big companies have frozen or terminated their DB plans, estimates Barclays Global Investors. Corporate DB has given way to individual DC plans like the 401 (k) and IRA, But these put too much responsibility on the shoulders of individual workers. Many don’t save enough money, and those who do set aside enough earn returns that are on average much lower than those of pension funds.
The Netherlands, like the US, has long relied on workplace pensions to supplement its government plan. The crucial difference is that these pensions were mandatory. Smaller employers had to band together to make a go of it, and industry-wide funds became standard. Run more as independent cooperatives than as captive corporate divisions, the Dutch funds were less prone to underfunding than their US counterparts. When they nonetheless ran into financial trouble in 2002 after the stock market crashed and interest rates sank, the country came up with a unique response. The Dutch funds are now no longer on the hook for providing a set income in retirement no matter what happens to financial markets—that is, they’ve gone DC—but they didn’t shunt everything to individual workers. Risks are shared by all the members of a pension fund, and the money is managed by professionals.
Pension consultant Ambachtsheer argues that this "collective DC" is just what the US needs. Many companies here are improving 401 (k)s to give employees more guidance, and there’s talk in Washington of supplementing (not supplanting) Social Security with near mandatory retirement accounts. But even those changes would fall well short of going Dutch. Countries don’t always set aside enough money to pay for the pensions they promise.
The sentence "But even those changes would fall well short of going Dutch." in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to______.
选项
A、US effort to change is far from enough to catch up with Netherlands
B、US effort to change will not help to provide retirees with enough money to go to Holland
C、changes made in the United States will not make everybody pay the same amount of money
D、changes made in the United States will never improve the country’s social security system
答案
A
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/8rSO777K
本试题收录于:
NAETI高级口译笔试题库外语翻译证书(NAETI)分类
0
NAETI高级口译笔试
外语翻译证书(NAETI)
相关试题推荐
Scienceandtechnologyisamongthefactorsthathavetakenthehumancivilizationtothelevelitenjoystoday.Everymilestone
Seekingtoframehisnewadministrationasonewithafirmfocusonclosingthegapbetweenchildrenfromaffluentandpoorfami
Grubbylittlemanhemaybe—heshitsinmypresencewithoutembarrassment—yetinhisthoughtIperceiveheisfastidious.
Howmuchphysicalactivityshouldteenagersdo,andhowcantheygetenough?Manyteenagersspendalotoftimebeingsedent
AlphaZeroseemstoexpressinsight.Itplayslikenocomputereverhas,intuitivelyandbeautifully,witharomantic,attacking
Herworseningsymptoms—theforgetfulnessandconfusion,thedifficultiescommunicatingandorganizingactivities—weren’tjustst
Moneyisa(n)________forbuyingandsellinginaeconomicsystemandservesasthecenterofthemonetarysystem.
Thespokesmansaidthatourpowergrowsthroughits________use;oursecurityemanatesfromthejustnessofourcause,theforce
WhatistheproblemwithphotographyofAfrica?
随机试题
A.氯胺酮B.异氟烷C.丙泊酚D.恩氟烷E.硫喷妥钠脑电监测可出现癫痫样脑电波改变的是
当C5~T2脊髓前联合受损时可出现
1.背景某施工项目进展到第15周后,对前14周的工作进行统计检查,有关情况如下表所示:2.问题计算14周的CV与SV,并分析成本和进度情况。
简述认知差异的教育含义。
班主任通过对集体的管理去间接影响个人,又通过对个人的直接管理去影响集体,从而把对集体和个人的管理结合起来的管理方式叫做()。
甲、乙、丙三人大学毕业后选择从事各不相同的职业:教师、律师、工程师。其他同学做了如下猜测:小李:甲是工程师,乙是教师。小王:甲是教师,丙是工程师。小方:甲是律师,乙是工程师。后来证实,小李、小王和小方都只猜对了一半。
每个人只有在自己的优势领域才能发挥自己的最大作用。世界上没有什么通才,所谓的人才,从某种意义上说就是在最适合的岗位上和最能发挥其优势的领域中表现其聪明才智的人。因此,使用人才应当用其所长,各得其宜。大才大用,中才中用,小才小用。这段话的主旨是(
(1)在考生文件夹下有一个工程文件sjt3.vbp。程序的功能是通过键盘向文本框中输人大、小写字母和数字。单击标题为“统计”的命令按钮,分别统计输入字符串中大写字母、小写字母及数字字符的个数,并将统计结果分别在标签控件数组x中显示,如图所示。在给
2012级企业管理专业的林楚楠同学选修了“供应链管理”课程,并撰写了题目为“供应链中的库存管理研究”的课程论文。论文的排版和参考文献还需要进一步修改,根据以下要求,帮助林楚楠对论文进行完善。将文档中所有的文本“ABC分类法”都标记为索引项;删除文档中文
A、aChechenrebelambushB、RussiansoldiersC、RussianservicemenD、acivilianvehicleD
最新回复
(
0
)