The Promise of Private Pensions: The First Hundred Years / Edition 1

by Steven A. Sass

Overview

The private pension is a curiosity in the modern economic environment. Why do profit-seeking companies pay retirement benefits to those no longer on the job? In this new institutional history, Steven Sass explores the rise and growth of the financial support system that today commands trillions of dollars of investment capital and supports hundreds of thousands of older Americans.

Before 1900 America's elderly derived their livelihood from simple sources. They worked if they could, relied on their children, and took charity if necessary. By the dawn of the twentieth century, however, the country was constructing a new industrial economy. Both laborers and capital were moving away from farms toward large corporate establishments. These market changes weakened family links and traditional skills, rendering workers more vulnerable to economic shocks. The elderly, in particular, fell out of step with the new mechanized and bureaucratic regime. It was in response to these dramatic economic shifts that the institution of private pensions emerged. In return for workers' long-term loyalty, employers promised to help sustain them through old age.

As Sass shows, creating the pension system proved far more complicated than anyone had anticipated. Over the last hundred years it has evolved into a complex institution driven by congressional mandates, judicial/administrative decisions, union campaigns, political debates, and the ministrations of lawyers, economists, human resource specialists, actuaries, and insurance experts. Sass traces the U.S. pension system through to the present day, exploring how our modern corporate economy is confronting the challenges of an aging population.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674945203
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	06/15/1997
Series:	Pension Research Council Book
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Steven A. Sass is Editor of the Regional Review at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Setting the Problem

Pensions and Capitalism

Business Finds an Interest

The Logic of Pension Expansion

The Hard Actuarial Realities

The Public Character of Private Pensions

A Tale of Two Classes

The Pension Industry Reorganizes

ERISA and the Reformation of Pensions

Epilogue: Pensions and Post-Industrial Capitalism

Notes

Index

Editorial Reviews

Stephen Sass tells his complex story well...His institutional account is richly documented with archival materials and interviews with key actors in the arena...With The Promise of Private Pensions, economic and social historians as well as gerontologists now have a case study of US institutions that is a worthy complement to Leslie Hannah's Inventing Retirement: The Development of Occupational Pensions in Britain.

W. Andrew Achenbaumn Studies [UK]

Stephen Sass tells his complex story well...His institutional account is richly documented with archival materials and interviews with key actors in the arena...With The Promise of Private Pensions, economic and social historians as well as gerontologists now have a case study of US institutions that is a worthy complement to Leslie Hannah's Inventing Retirement: The Development of Occupational Pensions in Britain.

American Studies [UK] - W. Andrew Achenbaum

Stephen Sass tells his complex story well...His institutional account is richly documented with archival materials and interviews with key actors in the arena...With The Promise of Private Pensions, economic and social historians as well as gerontologists now have a case study of US institutions that is a worthy complement to Leslie Hannah's Inventing Retirement: The Development of Occupational Pensions in Britain.
— W. Andrew Achenbaum

American Studies [UK]

Reviews how, as both workers and capital moved away from traditional family support systems at the beginning of the 20th century and the elderly fell behind technological and social change, companies began rewarding the long-term loyalty of workers by supporting them after they no longer generated profit. Shows how the system has evolved into a complex institution driven by congressional mandates, judicial and administrative decisions, union campaigns, political debates, and the ubiquitous swarm of consultants. Concludes with a look at how today's corporations are confronting the challenges of an aging population. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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