Britain must charge for health care and raise retiring age to escape debt crisis, says IMF

[Dreamofunity]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz0SyqSDEPy

Gordon Brown was warned last night to raise the retirement age above 65 and introduce NHS charges to tackle the soaring state deficit.
In a devastating intervention, the International Monetary Fund called for radical changes to the pension system and spending cuts that go far beyond the plans outlined by the Prime Minister this week.
The global watchdog said root and branch changes to public sector spending would be necessary to 'help keep a lid on the debt' and restore financial stability.

The IMF's broadside is highly unusual ahead of an election and reflects grave concern at the debt mountain built up by the Brown government.

The public reprimand will rekindle memories of the humiliation of the Callaghan government in 1976 when the IMF forced massive budget cuts on Britain to deal with the collapse of the pound.
Treasury ministers privately admit that the budget deficit is expected to rise to £200billion this year - £25billion more than the Chancellor predicted in the Budget.
That is the equivalent of £3,257 of debt for every man, woman and child, or £9,457 for the average family

Oliver Blanchard, the IMF's top economist, told a press conference at a joint annual meeting with the World Bank that the next British government will 'have to take measures that improve the medium-term debt outlook'.

He added: 'That means reforms of the retirement system, that means reform of the healthcare system.'

The IMF said that radical reform of pensions should lead to a rise in the national retirement age from 65 and save billions of pounds.
And they called for politicians to target 'unfunded' final salary public-sector pension schemes which will potentially cost the the Exchequer up to £1trillion.
Mr Blanchard said reform was vital, adding that it would be 'a joke' if the Government settled instead for new fiscal rules that might be torn up at times of crisis.
The IMF estimated that by next year Britain's debt will represent 81.7 per cent of output.
Even with planned cuts and tax increases, it predicted a figure of 98.3 per cent by 2014.
There was a glimmer of hope for Alistair Darling in that the IMF raised Britain's growth forecast for next year to 0.9 per cent from 0.2 per cent.
The Chancellor's March budget went for a more optimistic 1.25 per cent.
The upgraded UK forecast was accompanied by caution that unemployment will continue to rise from 7.6 per cent of the workforce this year to 9.3 per cent next year. That would see three million without jobs.
The IMF also warned that Britain risks a new house price slump, despite an apparent recent market upturn. Their global outlook pointed to ' further large declines'.
In a bid to ease public concerns, senior Cabinet sources have revealed that Labour plans to make spending cuts and asset sales worth £75billion, taking an axe to major defence projects and the pay of judges, top civil servants and NHS managers.
Asked yesterday whether his spending plans were credible, Mr Brown told Five News: 'Absolutely. I've offered a deficit reduction plan. We've raised the top rate of tax. National insurance will rise by half of 1 per cent and we'll be cutting costs.
'There will be further announcements about how we sell off more than £16billion of assets. I have been absolutely straight with the British people.'
But Philip Hammond, Tory Treasury spokesman, said: 'It is increasingly clear that Labour have no plan to tackle the debt crisis they created.
'At their conference this week they showed absolutely no recognition of the size of the problem, and refused to be straight with people about the fact that their own Treasury documents show they are planning cuts to spending on public services.
'Labour still won't come clean with the British people.'

[88shelz]

would our health system be like the US system?
i like having the NHS - otherwise i wouldnt have any help at all.

[Buttons.]

Quote:

i like having the NHS - otherwise i wouldnt have any help at all.

[Rain that's Fallen]

Aye ^^ NHS goes, I'm ****ed.

Also, they're saying the way out of the economic ****up is to make people already in jobs work for longer... (so making the retirement age go up) when everyday we are hearing more and more about the unemployment situation.... AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE??? Or is it not a better idea to let people retire, and put the unemployed, into their jobs?

[88shelz]

maybe its gonna cost them more to pay for people retiring than to pay benefits.
we pay taxes here for a reason. parliament need to get the act together and start working to make peoples lives better...not spend our money on themselves and then make us suffer

[XxXflowerfairyXxX]

If we lose the NHS, I'm leaving.

[Dreaming.]

TBH., raising the retirement age isn't altogether unreasonable. People are getting older and living longer - it's only natural that the age at which you're going to retire will go up as the age of the population goes up. That's, quite frankly, stating the obvious.

From what I've read recently, the IMF is mainly suggesting a range of things by which we can actually deal with the recession; the NHS being just one of these. It's not a serious, nor realistic plan - path dependency and all that, the NHS is such an institution that it would be near impossible to start ripping people off quite as much as the US system does currently.

And let's consider the source of this article; The Daily Mail is hardly award-winning, truthful and unbiased journalism :P
It's pretty much fair to say that they just want any bone that suggests that Labour are doing a crap job, and that the Tories would do better. I'm a little sceptical of the figures suggested here, too; it's way far and above anything I've read in any Broadsheet.

[Dreamofunity]

I don't know much about british news sites; I generally trust most news sites equally, which tends to be not much at all.

That said, most the number quotes are from IMF (which I wouldn't trust them much either, but more reliable in some people's opinions) and overall the system of debt finance is unsustainable in the long run. I just thought you brits would find it interesting.

[Sigma]

Let's face it, the IMF are not some sort of impartial, unpolitical super-experts, it was set up to promote a particular political economic project of capitalist, government exists to support the morket not to serve citizens, institutionalised inequality on a global scale

[The Hierophant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dreaming.

TBH., raising the retirement age isn't altogether unreasonable. People are getting older and living longer - it's only natural that the age at which you're going to retire will go up as the age of the population goes up. That's, quite frankly, stating the obvious.

I was going to say this! *angryface*

& i'm too ill gather a coherent argument on the other points brought up

[Dreaming.]

Sorry
Feel better soon :)

[Dreamofunity]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morrigan

It's going to take a hell of a lot more than that to dent the deficit.

Interesting times ahead :/

Do the leaders of Britian know this (at least within policy debates, etc)?

Do you think the general population knows this?


For some reason in America, most the population seems to think our current trend is sustainable, and that adding more programs is going to fix things. I don't think anyone seems to have a real grasp on the situation and how easily it could fail completely if certain countries stopped financing our debt. Would you say that's similar with England, or do the people know that things are going to have to change soon?

[Dreamofunity]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morrigan

Given that the problem is large, and the political term short, I expect that many proposals will be watered down substantially, if implemented at all.

Ah, politics.

[Rhuben]

The IMF and World Bank in my opinion are two of the most corrupt entities on the face of this planet. Who are they to lecture of debts when they offer 'development loans' to African nations laden with strings and high interest knowing full well that the majority of states neither have the means nor will to be able to repay the money.

The IMF profits from debt, they are not impartial.