Australia's Retirement System

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In addition to unemployment and sickness insurance offered, or not offered in the latter case of the U.S., the CWED has further examined the retirement/pension programs offered within these countries. In view of the CWED’s analysis of retirement/pension of only mandatory public programs among the eight countries under examination, many similarities and differences exist. For example, in regards to the public programs offered in these countries, the most generous are France, Spain, Norway, and Sweden, while the least generous are the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia, exhibited in Graph 3 (page 6). Though differing levels of generosity among these eight nations, they all follow a similar template of eligibility. For …show more content…
She further implies that nations like the United States should look to Australia as a guide, yet in the CWED, Australia ranks lower than the United States because of their focus on individual responsibility instead of a purely state-provided initiative. This proves that while the United States and other countries may provide more in expenditures to retirees, the Australian model is still celebrated as effective, though not as financially “generous.” Therefore, while these countries might hold these rankings amongst one another based off expenditures provided, differences exist in type of programs, both public, private, and individual based that are not calculated, yet are still important in how and who are affected by such retirement …show more content…
Furthermore, the Comparative Welfare Entitlements Dataset’s examination of the three main social benefits: unemployment insurance, sickness coverage/insurance, and retirement/pension, seems quite simple. However, once gathering data on these different eight countries and further researching into their specific programs, it is clear that social welfare benefits are in actuality rather complex. Differences exist among public programs offered, in addition to private programs existing within countries as well. Furthermore, it is interesting how discrepancies are found even among these most developed nations. The United States for example, though arguably the most powerful country in the world, lacks many social welfare benefits in comparison to other nations. These differences were especially noticeable during the 2008 Great Recession that affected the U.S. on a much large scale than any other nation. The impact this economic downturn had in the United States is influenced due to the U.S.’s Liberal Market Economy, which results in fewer social safety nets provided. While other countries have LME’s as well, the United States’ plurality electoral system has resulted in fewer benefits offered than their LME counterparts. Though these results were surprising at first, after further study of these countries, they make perfect sense. In conclusion, social welfare is a complicated