2015年经济学人 德国社会抚恤金 方向错误

Germany's public pensions

In the wrong direction

The government is reversing some of its predecessor's sensible pension reforms

AS THE country with the European Union's fastest-ageing population,

Germany has repeatedly tweaked its pension system to avert¹ a slow-motion demographic disaster.

The biggest reform came during Angela Merkel's first term as chancellor².

Then, as now, her centre-right Christian³ Democrats⁵ were yoked⁶ with the centre-left Social Democrats in a “grand coalition⁷”.

In 2007 the coalition decided⁸ that the normal retirement⁹ age should gradually rise from 65 to 67.

Mrs Merkel has since preached similar demographic and economic sanity¹⁰ to most of her EU partners,

criticising France in particular for straying off the right path.

So it comes as something of a shock that Mrs Merkel, now in her third term and running another grand coalition, is reversing course.

On the campaign trail for last September's election, she promised to raise pensions for older mothers.

The Social Democrats countered with promises to let certain workers retire at 63 instead of 65 (not to mention 67).

As coalition partners, they will do both at once.

It falls to Andrea Nahles, the labour minister and a Social Democrat⁴ who likes to wave the banner of “social justice”,

to push the pension package through parliament by the summer so that it can take effect on July 1st.

A previous reform let women with children born after 1992 treat three of their stay-at-home maternity¹¹ years as if they had worked and paid full pension contributions.

The new “mother pension” will be for the 8m-9m women (and very few men) who took time off for children before 1992.

They will be allowed to count two of those years, instead of just one, as working years for pension purposes.

The second part of Mrs Nahles's reforms, retirement at 63, is aimed at people who have contributed to the pension system for at least 45 years.

But Mrs Nahles wants to count not only years spent working or caring for children or other family members but also periods of short-term unemployment.

Separately, she will also boost the pensions of people who cannot work due to disability, and spend more money to rehabilitate¹² them.

Individually, these proposals may seem noble-minded.

But as a package, the plan is “short-sighted and one-sided,” thinks Axel B?rsch-Supan, a pension adviser¹³ at the Munich Centre for the Economics of Ageing.

It benefits the older generation, which is already well looked after,

at the expense of younger people who will have to pay higher contributions or taxes.

“The financial and psychological costs of the pension at 63 are disastrous,” Mr B?rsch-Supan says.

There will no longer be any incentive¹⁴ to keep working longer.

In some cases, people may, in effect, retire at 61, register as unemployed¹⁵ for two years, and then draw their full pensions.

Criticism of the pension changes straddles German politics.

Social Democrats who were involved in previous reforms, such as Franz Müntefering, a former party boss, are against.

So are members of the business-friendly wing of Mrs Merkel's own party.

Employers are opposed, because they face labour shortages and are trying to persuade older workers to stay in their jobs longer,

not leave sooner. Even the churches are critical, on the grounds that the plan violates “generational justice”.

Germany's EU partners are especially upset.

Olli Rehn, the European economics commissioner¹⁶, has said that the commission may even sue Germany if it goes ahead with the plans.

It is not only the details of the measures that are disturbing but also the overall signal they send,

argues Thomas Straubhaar, director of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics.

Germany's “sandwich generation”—those in their 30s and 40s who must pay ever more to support their elders and will get ever less in their own old age—will sulk and might even emigrate.

The pension package, he says, is testimony¹⁷ only to “the power of the grey hairs”, as the grand coalition cynically¹⁸ doles¹⁹ out political gifts to a few favoured groups of voters.

1 avert   

v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等)

参考例句：

• He managed to avert suspicion.他设法避嫌。
• I would do what I could to avert it.我会尽力去避免发生这种情况。

2 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 yoked   

结合（yoke的过去式形式）

参考例句：

• The farmer yoked the oxen. 那个农夫给牛加上轭。
• He was yoked to an disinclined partner. 他不得不与一位不情愿的伙伴合作。

7 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

10 sanity   

n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确

参考例句：

• I doubt the sanity of such a plan.我怀疑这个计划是否明智。
• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。

11 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。

12 rehabilitate   

vt.改造(罪犯)，修复；vi.复兴，(罪犯)经受改造

参考例句：

• There was no money to rehabilitate the tower.没有资金修复那座塔。
• He used exercise programmes to rehabilitate the patients.他采用体育锻炼疗法使患者恢复健康。

13 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

14 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

15 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

16 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

17 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

18 cynically   

adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地

参考例句：

• "Holding down the receiver,'said Daisy cynically. “挂上话筒在讲。”黛西冷嘲热讽地说。 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比
• The Democrats sensibly (if cynically) set about closing the God gap. 民主党在明智（有些讽刺）的减少宗教引起的问题。 来自互联网

19 doles   

救济物( dole的名词复数 )； 失业救济金

参考例句：

• They have accepted doles. 他们已经接受了救济物品。
• Some people able and willing to work were forced to accept doles. 一些有能力也愿意工作的人被迫接受赈济品。