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A Promise That Will Be Broken
May
26, 2010
The Economist
United
Kingdom
Public
sector pensions are a promise that…countries in Western Europe simply can’t afford. And at some point somebody’s going to have to say so.”
Andrew Moss, the boss of Aviva, one of Europe's biggest insurers, says that since many Europeans will not get the state pensions they are expecting, the only answer is more provision by private insurers like his.
But this will be a big, long-term shift. Australia is the model to follow, Mr Moss says: in the 1980s its government decided that the only way forward was to compel people to contribute to personal pension plans. Now the country is in a strong position—because it took this long-term view. Mr Moss took Tea with The Economist and talked about Europe’s pensions challenge, about how Britain’s ageing society could provide opportunities in providing long-term care insurance, and the promising prospects in such places as Russia and Turkey.
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