身边的经济学·社会常识英语精读30篇（3）
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Pension System Design Under Demographic Stress: Intergenerational Equity vs. Financial Sustainability
人口压力下的养老金制度设计：代际公平与财务可持续性的权衡
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Aging populations transform pension systems from intergenerational solidarity mechanisms into contested fiscal liabilities with explicit distributional consequences.老龄化人口正将养老金体系从代际团结机制转变为存在争议的财政负担，并带来明确的分配后果。
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Pay-as-you-go schemes face mounting pressure as dependency ratios rise and labor force participation plateaus or declines.随着抚养比上升和劳动力参与率见顶或下降，现收现付制面临日益加剧的压力。
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Reforms like gradual retirement age increases improve sustainability but risk exacerbating inequality among low-income, physically demanding occupations.逐步提高退休年龄等改革虽能增强可持续性，却可能加剧低收入、体力劳动强度大职业群体内部的不平等。
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Notional defined contribution systems attempt to reconcile fairness and solvency by linking benefits to lifetime contributions and longevity adjustments.名义缴费确定型制度试图通过将待遇与终身缴费及寿命调整挂钩，来兼顾公平与偿付能力。
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However, their success depends on accurate demographic forecasting and politically feasible indexation formulas during prolonged low-growth periods.然而，其成效取决于人口预测的准确性，以及在长期低增长时期内政治上可行的指数化公式。
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Funding shortfalls rarely stem from demographic inevitability alone but from decades of underfunded promises and weak governance oversight.资金缺口鲜少仅源于人口结构的必然趋势，更多来自数十年来承诺资金不足及治理监督薄弱。
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Some countries introduce automatic adjustment mechanisms—triggered by life expectancy or funding ratios—to depoliticize periodic recalibrations.一些国家引入自动调整机制——由预期寿命或基金覆盖率触发——以使周期性再平衡去政治化。
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Yet these mechanisms require public understanding and trust to avoid perceptions of stealth benefit erosion or regressive burden shifting.但这些机制需公众理解与信任，以防被视作隐性削减福利或转嫁负担的不公平举措。
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Intergenerational equity demands transparent accounting of implicit debt and honest discussion about who bears adjustment costs—workers, retirees, or future taxpayers.代际公平要求清晰核算隐性债务，并坦诚讨论调整成本应由在职者、退休人员还是未来纳税人承担。
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Private pension supplementation helps only where coverage, portability, and fiduciary standards prevent further stratification.私人养老金补充仅在覆盖广泛、转移便捷且受托标准健全时，才不会加剧社会分层。
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System resilience hinges less on abstract actuarial balance than on adaptive institutions capable of renegotiating social contracts amid uncertainty.制度韧性不在于抽象的精算平衡，而在于能于不确定性中重新协商社会契约的适应性机构。
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Therefore, pension reform is fundamentally about sustaining legitimacy—not just solvency—in societies undergoing profound demographic transition.因此，养老金改革本质上关乎维系合法性，而不仅是偿付能力，尤其在经历深刻人口转型的社会中。