That's how the NYT would describe it if it employed the same euphemism in describing Obama's plan to raise taxes on the wealthy as it did to describe proposed cuts to pensions in Europe. It includes several comments that are inaccurate or peculiar. For example, the article tells readers that France's spending on public pensions is projected to rise from 13.3 percent of GDP today to 14.8 percent in 2050. It then describes this as three times the share in the United States. The current share of GDP going to pensions in France is more than three times the share for the United States, but the share in 2050 will be less than two and a half times the 6.1 percent share of GDP projected to go to Social Security in 2050. The increase in pension benefits in France projected for the next 40 years is actually relatively minor. At one point it compares Sweden's partial privatization to the one proposed by President Bush in 2004. It is worth noting that Sweden's public system, after the privatization, is one-third larger than the system in the United States. The article also asserts that the public system in the United States faces less stress than in Europe because of the U.S. system of employer based pension. Actually, this system is collapsing rapidly so that most workers will not be able to anticipate substantial income from either defined benefit or defined contribution pensions.
--Dean Baker
