244 Years of Development of the American Pension Industry

This article describes the 244-year development of the retirement industry in the United States since its founding in 1776, and analyzes the premise and necessary conditions of different retirement policies, retirement institutions, types of retirement services and the appearance of retirement products in the United States.

From 1776 to 1929, America's pension industry went from primitive family pension to government and social charity, and then the market began to take over the pension stage.

Assisted Living, Nursing Home, Retirement Communities, Non-profit Pension Institutions, government pension institutions are in their infancy.

In the 250 years since the declaration of independence on July 4, 1776, the United States has evolved from self-sufficient family-style small-to-small farm life to a market-led society that relies on money to buy goods and services;

And these social changes, but also to the United States of America's old-age care brought about by the changes - family pension, charity pension gradually into a policy-directed social pension and market pension. In other words, the United States is not from the beginning of the pension industry this kind of market-oriented, but gradually developed.

When we look back at the historical development of China's modern past, the pace of change in Chinese society and the pace of social change in the United States about 250 years is strikingly consistent, Chinese society has also experienced the transformation of mechanical production, the great abundance of materials, the social division of labor more refined, the acceleration of urbanization, the reduction of family size, family planning brought about by the child, and the rapid aging of the population.

So, can we draw the conclusion that the development course of China's old-age pension is bound to be consistent with the development course of American pension?

To answer this question, we need to think further about why social change in the United States is driving change in the American pension industry. And whether the impetus generated by this social change to the pension reform can be established in the context of China, and will it lead to any major changes in China's pension industry?

AgeLifePro firmly believes that by comparing the development of China and the United States pension industry, we can predict the development of China's pension industry in what step, at the same time, only understand the need for change in the field of old-age, can create conditions for the next development, and avoid the U.S. pension industry has gone through a detour.

At the same time, in the historical development process of the american pension industry, individuals, charities, governments, enterprises (representing the market) and interest groups all play their own roles, and in different historical periods of the pension industry, the main role of the players are different, but the efforts of the main role in the pension industry in different historical periods also created conditions for the appearance of the main role in the next historical period.

In the following, we go into the united States pension industry's stormy development process, together to witness the replacement of the new and old roles.

Before 1800: In a period of low productivity, the secret of old age was sons and wealth, and the government-run institutions (Poorhouses) were the main refuge for the lower classes of the elderly