HR悦读：养老金

[2012.08.11] Pensions 养老金 | 中国特色社会保障制度 【导读】 中国有句古话叫欲速则不达。中国社保制度短短几年内达到很高的覆盖率，可覆盖率之下的质量呢？吵得沸沸扬扬的养老金入市呢？什么是养老金空头账户？为什么中国不能学习西方？ Pensions 养老金 Social security with Chinese characteristics 中国特色社会保障制度 Congratulate China for building the foundations of a pension system so quickly. Now it needs to restructure it 祝贺中国如此迅速得建立起了养老金制度的基础。如今该制度需要重建。 Aug 11th 2012 | from the print edition THE 18th-century Chinese emperor Qianlong made elaborate preparations for retirement. He commissioned an exquisite retreat in Beijing’s Forbidden City, complete with trompe l’oeil paintings and meditation cushions. Its name translates as the “Studio of Exhaustion from Diligent Service”. 18世纪的中国皇帝乾隆曾为自己的退位后的生活煞费苦心。他曾命人在北京紫禁城里打造一座奢华处所，怡养天年。这就是倦勤斋，屋内用通景画装饰，摆放了几个蒲团。倦勤斋意为“日理万机劳累之时的听戏【注1】消遣之地” Many elderly Chinese have shown equal diligence and felt similar exhaustion. But their retirements have been less gilded. In 2009 less than 30% of China’s adults were covered by the government’s pensions patchwork. The only cushion for most rural folk was their field and their family. 很多上了年纪的中国人同样辛勤劳动过，也有过相似的劳累感。但与乾隆相比，他们退休后的生活却并不那么滋润。2009年，中国政府的各类养老金计划拼凑起来所覆盖的成年人只占中国总成年人口的30%还不到。对大多数乡下人来说，他们年迈之后的唯一依靠就只剩自己的土地和亲人了。 Since then, however, pensions have spread at extraordinary speed. Last week China’s national audit office reported that 622m people were now enrolled in one scheme or another: over 55% of adults. China’s new rural pension has added over 240m people in just two years—more than are covered by America’s Social Security (see article). The audit office says that China’s social-security system is now “basically” in place. That is an historic achievement. But “basic” is still the right word to describe Chinese pensions, which vary enormously between town and country, prosperous east and poorer west, private sector and public. In some rural counties the basic pension can be as low as 55 yuan (about $8.75) per month. 然而，从那以后养老金覆盖范围就以惊人的速度扩张。上周，中国国家审计署公布已有6.22亿人参与了至少一种养老金计划，覆盖超55%的成年人。仅两年时间，中国新推出的农村养老金计划就吸纳了2.4亿人，这一数字比美国的社保制度所覆盖的人数还要多（另见文）。该审计署称，中国的社保制度现在已经“基本”就绪。这是一项历史性成就。但“基本”一词仍然是那个能恰当形容中国养老金制度的词语。因为在中国，城乡之间，繁荣的东部和落后的西部之间，私营部门和国营部门之间的养老金制度差别很大。在中国的一些农村县，基本养老金可能低到55元/月（合8.75美元/月）。 China’s system does not, therefore, share the European problem of overgenerosity. But it does suffer, like Europe’s, from underfunding. In the cities, workers are obliged to supplement the state pension with contributions to individual accounts. In the countryside, they are encouraged to do the same. By one estimate about 2.5 trillion yuan has been paid into these accounts. But precious little of that money has stayed in them. 因此，中国的养老金制度也就不会像欧洲那样因福利待遇过高而产生问题。但跟欧洲国家一样，中国的确受到资金不足的困扰。在城市工作的人需要按规定为个人账户缴纳养老金，以此补充通国家养老金。农村的参保人员也被鼓励这么做。据估计，人们大概已经往这些账户里面缴纳了大约2.5万亿元的资金。但实际上里面的资金已所剩无几。 Unlike individual accounts in nearby Hong Kong or Singapore, China’s nest-eggs are not carefully segregated and invested in financial portfolios, held in the contributor’s name. Instead, local governments use the money for other things, such as paying the bills, speculating in property, or paying the pensions of today’s retired—especially those shed by state-owned enterprises during the downsizings of the 1990s. 与周边的香港和新加坡的个人养老金账户不同，中国并没有谨慎地隔离养老储备金，也没有用养老金缴纳者的名义将之投到各种金融投资组合中去。相反，当地政府把钱用到了其他地方，比如支付账单，炒房地产亦或是支付当期养老金，尤其是支付上世纪90年代被国企精简掉的那部分人的养老金。 Despite this plunder of the pension pots, China has no shortage of saving and investment. It ploughed 49% of its GDP into investment last year, and almost 3% into foreign assets. The country as a whole is making provision for its future. But individual pension contributors do not have title to these assets. They must instead pray that their contributions will be honoured by local governments from whatever resources officials can muster in the future. And migrants fear losing their entitlements when they cross provincial lines. 尽管这笔养老储备金被挪为他用，中国政府也不乏存款和投资。去年，中国政府的投资总额占GDP的49%，且其中有3%被投到了国外资产中去。举国上下正未雨绸缪。但个人养老金缴纳者却没有这些资产的所有权。相反，他们只能祈祷当地政府到时候（能按照规定）发放自己应享的养老金，而不管政府届时如何筹集资金。并且工作变动的人还害怕自己到另一个省份工作的时会失去自己享受（原来）社保待遇的资格。 One sensible reform would be for the central government to take charge of the pension system. It could fill the empty accounts, glue the fragmented system together and ideally make pensions much more portable. In terms of structure, the long-term goal should be to give individuals greater control over their own accounts, choosing their investments as they do in Hong Kong (with appropriate safety nets and so on). The problem here is that China still lacks the mature and open financial systems of Hong Kong and Singapore: its helter-skelter stockmarket is hardly ideal for retirement savings at the moment. So change will have to be gradual. 一个切合实际的改革就是让中央政府来接管整个养老金系统。此举可以填补空头账户，整合四分五裂的养老系统，还能完美的打破养老金的地缘限制。就其