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When most labor was agricultural, people generally toiled in the fields unti

游客2024-09-27  32
问题     When most labor was agricultural, people generally toiled in the fields until they dropped. The idea of formal retirement did not become feasible until work moved from farms to factories. In 1889 Otto von Bismarck famously introduced the world’s first pension scheme in Germany. In the 20th century, when universal suffrage became widespread, a period of retirement after work was seen as a mark of a civilized social democracy.
    After the second world war pension provision increased markedly, but the number of elderly people was still quite small. In the 1970s and 1980s caring for them seemed easily affordable. Many countries even reduced their retirement ages.
    The demographic picture looks different now that the baby-boomers are starting to retire. Europe and Japan are facing the biggest problems. The average dependency ratio in the European Union is already down to 3. 5, and is heading for 1.8 by 2050. Japan is on track for a startling 1.2. Since the average pensioner currently draws a total of about 60% of median earnings, from government and private sources, the system is likely to become unaffordable.
    There are ways of reducing the burden. The current generation of workers could save more now. If they put more money into funded pension schemes, the extra saving might encourage more investment and thus boost economic growth. A wealthier society would find it easier to afford paying pensions. Countries with PAYG schemes could raise taxes now, reducing the deficit and thus the debt burden on the younger generations.
    But more savings or higher taxation now would require those currently at work to defer consumption. They may not be willing to do so. And given the weakness of developed economies in the wake of the financial crisis, governments may not want to see consumption go down in the immediate future.
    In the OECD public spending on pensions benefits has been growing faster than national output, rising from 6. 1% of GDP in 1990 to 7% in 2007. It is forecast to reach 11.4% of GDP by 2050. Those forecasts already take into account the planned rise in retirement ages and a likely drop in replacement ratios and thus assume that voters will approve of pension reform even as the baby-boomers become a potentially powerful voting block of retired people.
    But that assumption may not be safe. Turnout in elections tends to be higher among the elderly than among the young. As Neil Howe and Richard Jackson of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, have written: " In the 2020s young people in developed countries will have the future on their side. Elders will have the votes on theirs. [br] The word "defer" (Paragraph Five) probably means
选项 A、set off.
B、set back.
C、hold back.
D、call off.
答案 B
解析 语义题。定位至第五段首句，从该句可以看出这里是说减少消费或者推迟消费以增加储蓄，set back意为“推迟”，符合此处语境，故B为答案。
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