@article{1461867,
      author = {Ponthière, Grégory,},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1461867},
      title = {Allocating pensions to younger people : towards a social  insurance against a short life /},
      publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan,},
      abstract = {This book takes as a starting point that welfare states in  developed societies do not provide systems of social  insurance against the risk of an early death. In contrast  to the way in which economically developed countries  provide ways of insuring citizens against other  possibilities, such as unemployment and disease, no such  social insurance mechanism exists for early death. It aims  to demonstrate that, despite the impossibility to  compensate the victims of a short life once they are  identified, and despite the impossibility to identify the  persons who will be short-lived (when they are still  alive), it is nonetheless possible to construct a social  insurance against the risk of a short life by means of  age-based statistical discrimination favouring all young  persons. Combining philosophical literature with economic  analysis, the book re-examines the ethical foundations of  social insurance, and proposes a major reform of the  welfare state: the construction of a social insurance  against a short life. It shows how such an insurance system  could be constructed by partially reversing existing  pension systems, by offering a period of retirement to all  young adults before they start their career. Such a  reversed pension system would allocate more free time and  opportunities to younger members of society before they  enter the labour market, and, hence, this system would also  improve the lives of the unidentified young persons who  will turn out to die prematurely. The book discusses the  social desirability of this new system, as well as its  financial feasibility and societal consequences, examining  how pension allowances paid to young adults may be financed  by the work of senior workers. As such, this book  demonstrates how the universal uncertainty about the  duration of life can be reconciled with the idea of social  justice. With an accessible and interdisciplinary approach,  this book will be of interest to academics working in a  range of fields, including economics, public finance,  social insurance, the economics of ageing and the welfare  state, economic ethics and political philosophy. Gregory  Ponthiere is a Professor of Economics and Philosophy at the  Universit catholique de Louvain, Hoover Chair in Economic  and Social Ethics. .},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24748-4},
      recid = {1461867},
      pages = {1 online resource},
      address = {Cham, Switzerland:},
      year = {2023},
}