This morning on my drive to work, I heard a telling report on NPR news about the British experience with private retirement accounts.
You see, the Iron Lady (Maggie Thatcher) thought privatizing Britain's retirement system would give folks something to hold, to own, and be responsible for.
25 years or so later, the reaction among Britains is that retirees would have been better off hiding their sterling pounds under a mattress. Some retirees lost 20% of their contributions.
There is a benefit included in addition to the private accounts, but after it was indexed to inflation rather than wage increases (sound familiar), it has shrunk to about 10% of average wages.
Poor market returns and management fees have eradicated any benefits. Britain is now considering moving towards a simpler, guaranteed benefit retirement system.
One commentator remarked that it was striking to see the U.S. move towards a system that failed in Britain, while Britain looks at moving towards the highly successful Social Security system modeled in the U.S.
As an aside, this report provides evidence that NPR has not become a junior member of the right-wing echo chamber as some here on DKos have complained.
Update [2005-2-17 9:17:32 by baldandy]: The NPR link to the story is now available. Enjoy.