The Market’s Revenge: Old Age Security and Social Rights

This paper discusses the mounting pressure on the budget of old age pensions.  The first pressure arises from the ‘revenge of capital’ – the reassertion of market power that has taken place across the western world since the mid-1970s.  The second pressure on the welfare state arises from ‘market failure’ – the general failure by western labour markets to deliver the jobs and wages we had come to expect when the welfare state and old age security system were designed in the 1950s and 1960s.  Myles considers the implications of selling off the welfare state – not only upon seniors but upon all Canadians.

ISBN – 1-895796-41-5