Security and the working life: new perspectives

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511489075.020

16 - Security and the working life: new perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009

Noel Whiteside

Edited by

Robert Salais and

Robert Villeneuve

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Noel Whiteside: Affiliation:
Professor in Social Policy University of Warwick

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Summary

In dealing with the poor some economists expect from them a virtue that we certainly do not find in ourselves. The poor, of course, have less opportunities of thrift than the well-to-do classes, and it is a little too much to expect of them … the extremely penurious lives which would be necessary if they were to make by their own efforts, a sufficient provision for old age … I do not think there is any more inclination on the part of the upper and middle classes to make sacrifices for the future than there is on the part of the poor … If you told a rich man that he was to give up every chief enjoyment of his life, every recreation, in order to make provision of this kind, I do not think he would make it.

(Joseph Chamberlain, 1894, cited in Thane 2000:186)

This chapter bypasses the well-trodden fields of pension finance and recent pension reform to address the debate on old age protection in the context of changing working lives. By demonstrating how the meaning and objectives of pension provision have changed over time, it argues that there is an urgent need for further reform, if constructive labour market behaviours are to be encouraged by raising personal competencies and offering choice to people as they age.

Type: Chapter
Information: Europe and the Politics of Capabilities , pp. 255 - 271

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489075.020 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2005

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