The Answer to Tierney

Dave at Axis of Evel Knievel found out the information I was looking for yesterday to repudiate John Tierney's obviously flawed argument about Chilean pension plans. Some of the best:

Meanwhile, recent studies by the State Regulator of the private pension administrators, Superintendencia de Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones, conclude that over half of the affiliates of the system will never be able to save enough in their pension accounts by retirement to fund even the "minimum pension,” which is currently set at about $130 U.S. dollars a month. Not only that but this majority of the workforce is not entitled to the complementary public social security "safety net" either. Two other studies by the government administrator of the public pension system Instituto de Normalización Previsional conclude that about two-thirds of worker affiliates will be unable to save enough for the minimum pension.

The difference between a writer like John Tierney and Paul Krugman is that Krugman feels it necessary to back up his economic claims with something called evidence. It's something that the Republican party has forgotten about. Evidentially evidence is part of relativism. Tierney made his claims about the glory of Chilean private accounts without ever presenting anything but anecdotal evidence. Thanks Dave.