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OCR for page 17
Considerations in
Retirement Income Projections
Historical data on economic well-being for retirees and their families show
marked improvements over the post-World War II period. Yet more recent data
and projections suggest that the average retiree in future years may face bleaker
economic circumstances than the average retiree today. The data also suggest
that disparities in income and wealth may widen, not lessen, among the elderly
The available data and indicators often pose difficult problems of interpreta-
tion. For example, there is considerable debate about the meaning of the recent
leveling off in rates of pension coverage of the work force and, indeed, about the
definition of "coverage;" see Box 2-1. There are also many areas of uncertainty,
such as whether the marked postwar trend toward early retirement has ended and
whether the recent cost reductions in health care achieved by the spread of man-
aged care will prove long lasting or only temporary. Nonetheless, the weight of
the evidence supports the conclusion that, with the aging of the population, it will
be more difficult to sustain current levels of retirement income security at accept-
able costs, and, consequently, that retirement-income-related policies will be the
subject of increasing scrutiny and public debate.
Current Status
On average, retired people and their families today enjoy a reasonable level of
OCR for page 17
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economic security in the United States9 particularly in comparison with earlier
generations (although some elderly groups are much less secure). In 1959 the
measured poverty rate for people aged 65 and older was 35.2 percent, well above
the rate of 22.4 percent for the total population; in 1995 the poverty rate for the
OCR for page 17
elderly was just 10.5 percent, below the rate of 13.8 percent for the total popula-
tion (Bureau of the Census, 1996:Tables C-1, C-2.
The expansion of the U.S. Social Security system, initially established some
60 years ago, played a major role in improving the economic circumstances of
retired workers and their families. The system currently covers an estimated 96
percent of all jobs in the United States. From 1940 (when benefits were first
paid) to 1972, Congress has increased benefit levels on 10 occasions, although
recent legislative changes have curtailed benefits in several ways. Since 1975,
benefits have been indexed annually for inflation.
Over the post-World War II period, U.S. workers also benefited from provi-
sions of the federal income tax code that encouraged the expansion of employer-
sponsored pension plans. In 1993, 47 percent of private nonagricultural wage
and salary workers participated in a plan, up from 15 percent in 1940 (Employee
Benefit Research Institute, 1994:Tables 9, 11~. Most older people also have
income from their own savings (although the amounts are usually small) or from
other sources, including earnings from part-time and other jobs.
However, not all of today's retirees are in comfortable economic circum-
stances: 10.5 percent are poor and another 15 percent are categorized as near
poor (with incomes between 100% and 150% of the poverty line). Among the
poorest groups are elderly women not living with family members (including
widows and others), with a poverty rate of 24 percent, and elderly blacks and
Hispanics, with poverty rates of 25 percent and 24 percent, respectively (1995
data; Bureau of the Census, 1996:Table 2~.
Future Prospects
Looking to the future, there is concern that the economic situation of future
retirees and their families will not improve, and may worsen, and that disparities
in income and wealth levels among the elderly may widen. There are several
factors that contribute to the concern, including trends in Social Security costs,
employer pensions, personal savings, health care costs, and other demographic
and socioeconomic factors. However, other factors, such as increased efforts by
1While the poverty rate is a useful measure of income adequacy, the arbitrariness of the poverty
line should be acknowledged, and the official poverty measure is flawed in many respects. Imple-
menting the recommendations of a National Research Council panel for an improved measure would
somewhat alter the picture of who is poor. However, the elderly poverty rate would not differ
markedly today from the total population rate ( 1 or 2 percentage points higher or lower depending on
how the measure is altered), and the conclusion that the poverty rate fell disproportionately for the
elderly over time would almost certainly not change (see Betson, Citro, and Michael, 1997; Citro and
Michael, 1995).
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employers and the government to educate workers about the need to save for
retirement, may have countervailing effects.2
Social Security The current level of Social Security benefits cannot be
sustained indefinitely at the current tax rates. One reason, which has been widely
reported in the media, is the demographic transition: because of the aging of the
baby boom generation and the relatively small size of the baby bust generation,
there will eventually be too few workers relative to the number of retirees to
provide the needed level of contributions. The 1996 annual report of the Old-
Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) trustees projects that the old-
age and survivors insurance trust fund will start running a deficit by the year 2015
and will be increasingly unbalanced through the rest of the 75-year projection
period (to 2070~. The disability insurance trust fund is projected to run a deficit
as early as 2003, while the Medicare hospital insurance trust fund has already
begun to run a deficit and is expected to be exhausted by 2001.
These figures are based on the "intermediate" projections of the Social Secu-
rity actuary (Board of Trustees [OASDIi,1996:Table II.F13; see Board of Trust-
ees [HIi,1996:Table II.D2 for Medicare). The high-cost (pessimistic) projection
shows the old-age and survivors insurance trust fund running a deficit as early as
the year 2000 and markedly out of balance thereafter. The low-cost (optimistic)
scenario shows the trust fund only modestly out of balance for the period 2020-
The expected Social Security trust fund imbalance must be corrected by
some means, which could include reductions in benefits, increases in payroll tax
rates, or both. The problems with the Social Security system are particularly
important because of pressures on other sources of retirement income and be-
cause a significant fraction of the elderly rely almost entirely on Social Security
benefits for retirement income. In 1992,14 percent of Social Security beneficia-
ries aged 65 and older had no income from other sources, and another 21 percent
had other income of less than $2,000 (U.S. House of Representatives, 1994:Table
Pension Coverage Trends in employer-sponsored pensions are mixed. The
number of civilian workers aged 16 and over who report that they participated in
an employer-sponsored pension plan increased from 53 million in 1979 to 67
million in 1993. However, the percentage of all workers aged 16 and over who
participated in a pension plan remained about the same over this period: 46
percent in 1979 and 44 percent in 1993, indicating that the expansion of em
2Recent data indicate that education efforts by employers offering defined contribution pension
plans can pay off in terms of the proportion of employees who choose to participate and the level of
their contributions (Employee Benefit Research Institute, 1996b).
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ployer-sponsored pension coverage in the post-World War II era may have
reached a plateau (Employee Benefit Research Institute, 1994:Table 1 1; see also
Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, 1994:Tables B16-B17~. On the
positive side, the percentage of workers who were vested in a plan and therefore
entitled to receive benefits increased from 24 percent in 1979 to 38 percent in
1993. (The vesting rate increased more rapidly for women than men.)
Pension plan participation among workers is in large part a function of how
many of them work for employers that sponsor plans. The sponsorship rate for
civilian workers aged 16 and over has also leveled off (it was 56% in 1979 and
57% in 1993), due to such factors as the shift of employment from manufacturing
to service companies, which are less likely to offer pension plans, and the declin-
ing influence of labor unions. In addition, the standards for pensions to qualify
for favorable tax treatment may have led some companies to discontinue or scale
back their plans, although recent legislation to simplify pension regulation may
encourage more small companies to offer plans.
Pension plan participation is also affected by a plan's coverage provisions.
The growth of part-time and temporary employment reduces participation be-
cause such workers often are not eligible to participate. Finally, participation for
eligible workers is elective in some plans. Younger workers have shown a
declining participation rate in recent years, which is partly due to the increasing
propensity of employers to offer elective 401(k) plans that require employee
contributions: younger workers are less likely than older workers to participate
in such plans. Yet the fact that older workers have historically participated in
pension plans at higher rates than younger workers suggests that participation
rates will increase for today's younger workers as they age.3
In sum, the picture is mixed. However, should the flat pattern of sponsorship
and participation rates continue, there will remain a significant number of work-
ers who are not covered by employer pensions, which will only be partly reduced
by a continued increase in the vesting rate.
Types of Pension Plans Trends in the types of pensions offered to employ-
ees have raised questions about the likely contributions of employer pensions to
retirement income security. There are two major categories of plans, each with
many variants: defined benefit plans, which guarantee a specific retirement
benefit, and defined contribution plans (401(k) plans, profit-sharing plans, and
others), which provide for contributions by the employee, employer, or both, but
do not guarantee a specific benefit. The number of defined contribution plans has
grown from 67 percent of total plans in 1975 to 87 percent in 1992. Because
many such plans are offered as a supplement to a defined benefit plan and be
3Participation rates peak between ages 40 and 60 (60% in 1993), after which they fall, presumably
because employees with vested benefits retire earlier.
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cause defined contribution plans are more prevalent among small employers,
defined benefit plans are still the primary plan for the majority of active partici-
pants. However, the proportion of participants with a primary defined contribu-
tion plan is growing (Employee Benefit Research Institute, 1994:Table 14 and
unpublished tables).4
There are arguments that the growing popularity of defined contribution
plans is increasing the risks to retirement income security. However, much of the
growth in defined contribution plans is among workers in small companies who
would otherwise have no pension coverage at all (see Silverman, 1993~. More-
over, it is not clear which type of plan ultimately provides more security. The
benefits from defined contribution plans may be less predictable because of the
greater flexibility that many such plans offer workers (e.g., to determine the level
of contributions, to allocate contributions among investment vehicles, to make
withdrawals for preretirement consumption, etc.), because workers who change
jobs may spend their lump-sum distributions before retirement, and because mar-
ket fluctuations may adversely affect workers' investment returns.
Yet workers covered by defined benefit plans face risks as well, even though
their employers (backed up the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) bear the
risks from such factors as market downturns. For example, workers may not
work long enough to be vested (vesting periods are typically longer for defined
benefit than for defined contribution plans), and workers who are laid off in mid-
career may receive significantly lower benefits because such plans typically link
benefits to years of service and highest years of earnings (see Samwick and
Skinner, 1993~.5 Also, because defined benefit plans increasingly offer partial
lump-sum payment options, the risks that benefits will not last a lifetime may be
increasing for the recipients (and their survivors) of these plans as well as the
recipients of defined contribution plans. Indeed, what can perhaps be concluded
is that the trend is toward greater flexibility of pension plan provisions generally.
This trend may be beneficial (or not detrimental) to retirement income security in
the aggregate, but it increases the likelihood of greater disparities in ultimate
levels of retirement income.
4These figures are based on administrative data. In contrast, survey data suggest that defined
contribution plans are already the primary plan for the majority of workers (Pension and Welfare
senents Administration, 1994:Tables sl3-sl4).
Moreover, workers who were vested in a defined benefit plan in a previous job may not be aware
that they can apply for benefits (although there is a system of notification by the Social security
Administration). In general the percentage of retirees who report that they receive benefits is
smaller than the percentage of people nearing retirement who report that they participate in a plan.
Reasons for the discrepancy may include survey reporting errors, failure to apply, failure to be
vested, using lump-sum distributions for other purposes, etc. (Pension and Welfare senents Admin-
istration, 1 995b: 12).
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Personal Savings It appears unlikely that personal savings will make up for
any shortfalls that occur in Social Security and employer pension benefits. Sur-
vey data indicate that many people are approaching retirement with virtually no
personal savings of any kind (except, perhaps, a home). For example, among
people aged 51-61 in 1992, 25 percent of couples had less than $13,000 in
financial assets (e.g., stocks, bonds, savings accounts), 25 percent of single men
had less than $1,000 in financial assets, and 25 percent of single women had no
financial assets. Adding the value of home equity, 25 percent of couples, single
men, and single women aged 51-61 had, respectively, less than $56,000, less than
$4,000, and less than $1,200 in such assets (Gustman and Juster, 1996:Table 2-
A1~. Aggravating the situation is that people with low asset levels are less likely
to have employer pension benefits than are people with higher asset levels
(Gustman and Juster, 1996:Table 2-5~.
In fact, understanding people's motives for saving and why so many people
save so little may be one of the key questions for policy makers, given that such
motives influence not only personal savings but also elective pension plan contri-
butions. Policy alternatives are likely to differ according to the reasons for lack
of saving, such as an inability to save due to low earnings or to not understanding
the levels of saving that are needed to maintain a comparable life-style in retire-
ment. (In all likelihood, reasons differ across groups of the population.)
Health Care Costs Despite efforts to control rising health care costs, it is
likely that they will continue to grow faster than incomes for the foreseeable
future. Although virtually all elderly people have Medicare coverage and many
of them have supplementary private insurance coverage or Medicaid coverage,
they incur significantly higher out-of-pocket costs for medical care on average
than younger people. In 1987 (the most recent data available), 89 percent of
people aged 65 or older incurred out-of-pocket medical care costs, not counting
insurance premiums or long-term care costs, and their mean expense was $1,005;
the corresponding figures for younger people were 74 percent and $391 (Taylor
and Banthin,1994:Table 2~. Also, the elderly on average spend a higher propor-
tion of their income on medical care than do younger people: in 1987,23 percent
of elderly households compared with only 7 percent of nonelderly households-
had out-of-pocket medical expenses that exceeded 10 percent of their income
(Taylor and Banthin, 1994:Table 8~.
Among the reasons the elderly incur higher costs are that they have higher
rates of medical care utilization and they face gaps in coverage (e.g., prescription
drugs are not paid for by Medicare) and the requirement to pay insurance premi-
ums, deductibles, and copayments. If medical care costs continue to increase, a
retirement income stream that would previously have been adequate for living
expenses, including health care, may no longer be adequate. Moreover, cutbacks
in Medicare, Medicaid, and medical insurance provided to retirees by their former
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employers would exacerbate the situation, if elderly people cannot reduce their
health care utilization or costs.
Such cutbacks may already be occurring. The proportion of all current wage
and salary workers who were covered by employer-provided health insurance
between 1988 and 1993 declined from 65 percent to 61 percent. The decline was
concentrated among private-sector workers; it appeared to stem largely from
lower rates of provision of health care plans by employers, rather than from
higher rates of nonparticipation by workers at employers offering plans (Pension
and Welfare Benefits Administration, 1994:4~. Data on trends in retiree health
insurance coverage are harder to obtain, but there are indications that a significant
proportion of employers are curtailing health insurance coverage for current and
future retirees or plan to do so in the near future (see, e.g., Buck Consultants, Inc.,
1993; Lohse, 1993~.
Demographic and Socioeconomic Trends Several demographic and so-
cioeconomic trends are contributing to the concern about future retirement in-
come security. First, rising life expectancies mean that retirement income must
be stretched out over a longer period a particular concern when retirement
income flows are not indexed for inflation. This is the case for employer pension
plan payments for which there is no regular cost-of-living adjustment.
Second, lower ages at retirement mean that workers have fewer years in
which to save for retirement (and fewer years to contribute to the financing of
Social Security benefits for current retirees), while having more years of retire-
ment consumption to support. The post-World War II period has seen a marked
drop in labor force participation rates for older men. The rates for men aged 60 to
64 declined between 1955 and 1993 from 83 percent to 54 percent; the rates for
men aged 65 and over declined from 40 percent to 16 percent (U.S. House of
Representatives, 1994:856~.6 Recently, the trend toward earlier ages at retire-
ment for men has leveled off, and the labor force participation rate for women
aged 60 and over, which is significantly below that of men in the same age group,
has increased somewhat.7 Whether the 1983 Social Security amendments to
gradually reduce initial benefits (sometimes referred to confusingly as an in-
crease in the "normal" retirement age) offset for workers older than ages 65 to
67 by an increase in the delayed retirement credit will lead to later ages at
retirement will not be known for some years.8
Third, an increasing rate of disabilities among workers lowers labor supply
6see Ransom, Sutch, and Streib (1 g88) for labor force participation rates for men aged 60 and over
for 1870-1937; ~umsdaine and wise (1994) continue the series through Also.
7surkhauser and Quinn (1994) argue that the decline in labor force participation rates has bot-
tomed out, while Peracchi and Welch (1994) argue the opposite, particularly for low wage earners.
8For differing views on the likely effects of these provisions, see Gustman and steinmeier (1991),
Reimers and Honig (1993), and Rust and Phelan (1993).
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and the opportunities to save and increases the need for income support over a
longer period. Although surveys do not appear to show higher rates of disability
in the elderly population (see, e.g., Freedman and Soldo, 1994; Waidmann,
Bound, and Schoenbaum, 1995), higher proportions of workers have been apply-
ing for and receiving public and private disability benefits. Workers receiving
Social Security disability benefits as a percentage of covered civilian workers
increased between 1960 and 1975 from 0.8 percent to 3.2 percent. The number of
beneficiaries declined to 2.7 percent of covered workers in 1985, largely due to a
decline in the percentage of applications that were approved, but it increased to
3.1 percent in 1991 (calculated from U.S. House of Representatives, 1994:Tables
2-8, 3-5; see also Lewin-VHI, 1994~. Also, there appears to be a trend among
workers toward younger ages for first receipt of disability benefits (Rust, 1993~.
All of these trends could result in a situation in which, absent changes in
policy and behavior, future retirees as a group will be worse off than current
retirees. It is even more likely that retirement income levels will vary widely:
some people will be relatively well off (e.g., people who retained jobs in indus-
tries with good benefits), while many others will be badly off. Of course, the
worst case may not develop because of countervailing factors. For example,
higher immigration levels could mean increased revenues to the Social Security
system; the spread of managed care could achieve significant, sustained reduc-
tions in the rate of increase in health care costs; and stepped-up efforts by the
government, employers, and financial investment companies to educate workers
about the need to increase pension plan contributions and other savings could
have a positive effect.
Whether a worst-case or best-case situation will occur cannot be known, but
policy adjustments (e.g., some changes in Social Security financing) will very
likely be necessary to maintain future retirement income security even if such
factors as low rates of personal saving show improvement. Moreover, to the
extent that needed changes are delayed, they may have to be larger in magnitude.9
The question is how to evaluate the range of policy alternatives that may be
Debates about retirement income security in the United States are likely to focus
on four broad policy areas: Social Security, employer-provided pensions, other
personal savings and wealth, and health care needs and costs. The kinds of policy
9See 1994-95 Advisory Council on Social Security Technical Panel on Trends and Issues in
Retirement Saving (1995) for an extensive discussion that reaches similar conclusions. For other
reviews, see Congressional Budget Office (1993), Employee Benefit Research Institute (1994), and
Reno (1993).
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options in each of these areas for which decision makers are likely to want cost
and other projections vary widely in scope and complexity and, hence, in the
challenges they pose for projection models.
Below we identify many possible options in each area, but it is important to
note that recent policy debates have shared several primary themes: a focus on
containing costs (e.g., of employer pension and health care benefits, Medicare
and Medicaid); a concern to maintain a mixed public-private system of benefits
in which employers play an important role; and, perhaps most important, a focus
on putting more responsibility on individuals to save for their own retirement and
health care needs, through their employers and other means. Proposals to stimu-
late increased savings by individuals include simplifying pension regulations to
encourage small businesses to set up certain kinds of defined contribution benefit
plans for their workers, increasing incentives to contribute to Individual Retire-
ment Accounts (IRAs), and providing for tax-advantaged medical savings ac-
counts that encourage people to limit their health care spending. (Proposals to
privatize part or all of Social Security payments would give individual workers
choices about fund investments, but not about whether to participate in the pro-
These and similar options place a premium on understanding individual
savings behavior, including how people react to perceived risks, and on the
behavior of employers with regard to compensation policies two areas in which
data currently are very inadequate and research knowledge is weak. These kinds
of options also call for capabilities to simulate the effects of random or cyclical
shocks (recessions, bull or bear stock markets, etc.) that can be expected to affect
employment and savings growth opportunities differently across time and popu-
lation groups.
Social Security
Social Security clearly needs and will receive attention to consider ways to re-
store a balance between costs and benefits. It seems likely that the policy debate
will look first for incremental solutions that spread the costs broadly. Such a goal
will likely require modeling the effects of a combination of several small changes
in the system (instead of larger changes in one or two features). Such changes
include the following, each of which is framed in terms of the direction that is
needed to restore balance to the Social Security trust fund:
raising the "early" retirement age (the age at which people can first collect
� increasing payroll tax rates for employers, employees, or both;
� increasing the payroll tax base, perhaps by removing the current cap on
the amount of earnings that is subject to the old-age and survivors insurance
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portion of the payroll tax and making all earnings subject to tax (as has already
been done for the Medicare portion);
� decreasing benefits by changing the benefit formula;l�
� adding a means test for benefits, so that retirees with other sources of
income or assets receive smaller Social Security payments;
� increasing the amount of benefits that is subject to the income tax;
� repealing the recent law that increased the amount of earnings that benefi-
ciaries can receive without a reduction in benefits;
� reducing the yearly cost-of-living adjustment; and
� investing some part of current trust fund surpluses in stocks instead of
U.S. Treasury notes (as recommended by the Social Security Advisory Council;
see Quinn and Mitchell, 1996~.
Consideration of changes in Social Security benefit provisions in some in-
stances will require consideration of whether the same changes should be made
for other components of the system, such as disability insurance. For example, an
increase in the Social Security early retirement age or a reduction in benefits will
be less effective in restoring balance to the system if disability benefits and the
consequent incentives to apply for disability payments are not also reduced.
There may also be policy interest in modeling yet more radical alternatives,
such as partially privatizing the Social Security system, perhaps with the intent of
restoring confidence in the system. (Some members of the Social Security Advi-
sory Council recommended partial privatization.) At present, public opinion
data indicate that younger workers doubt that they will receive Social Security
benefits commensurate with the taxes they are paying into the system (see
Burtless, 1996:244; see also Employee Benefit Research Institute, 1995~. Priva-
tizing some (or all) contributions could restore the confidence of younger work-
ers that their taxes will in due course be returned to them as benefit streams from
their "own" retirement accounts. Indeed, a problem with policy changes that
tinker with the existing system, instead of attempting radical reform, is that they
may increase the perception that the system is at risk and that workers cannot be
confident that the rules will stay the same for any length of time.
Employer Pensions
Social Security is not and was never intended to be the only source of retirement
income security: historically, employer-provided pensions have also been ex
10At present, the primary insurance (benefit) amount is calculated with two "bend points": for a
worker reaching age 62 in 1996, it was 90 percent of the first $437 of the worker's average indexed
monthly earnings (AIME), plus 32 percent of the next $2,198, plus 15 percent of the remaining
amount above $2,635, if any (U.S. General Accounting Office, 1996b:52-53). (The AIME is based
on covered earnings that are taxable for Social Security, for which the maximum amount in 1996 was
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peeled to make an important contribution. There is extensive legislation and
government regulation of employer plans and, hence, a need to model the effects
of changes to them. Policy changes could be made either to affect workers or
employers (or both. Examples of policy changes that could increase retirement
income security by requiring workers to maintain their pension contributions for
retirement purposes or by encouraging them to increase their contributions in-
clude the following:
� increasing the penalties for early withdrawals from 401(k) plans and other
defined contribution pension plans and restricting loans against such accounts;
� allowing workers to contribute to 401(k) and similar plans immediately
on employment, without a waiting period (employers can waive a waiting period,
but most do not);
� requiring workers, when they change jobs, to roll over their pension plan
contributions to some other plan (i.e., disallowing lump-sum payments that are
not earmarked for retirement purposes);
alternatively, allowing workers who change jobs to carry 401(k) or Sims
lar plans to which they and their new employers can contribute;
� mandating that workers draw retirement income from employer pensions
in the form of regular payments or an annuity (i.e., disallowing any lump-sum
raising the age (currently 70.5 years) at which workers must begin draw-
ing from their defined contribution pension accounts;
� regulating pension investment options; and
increasing tax incentives to contribute to defined contribution pension
Perhaps even more important are policy changes that alter employer behav-
ior. Examples of policy changes that could increase retirement income security
by altering the behavior of employers include the following:
� raising the limits on the extent to which employers can prefund defined
benefit pension plans;
� increasing protections for spousal benefits in pension plans;
� equalizing the tax treatment of employee contributions to defined benefit
and defined contribution pension plans (contributions to defined benefit plans are
i{Recent pension simplification legislation made changes in the direction of some of the policy
options listed: for example, increasing the penalty for early withdrawals from a "simple" pension
account within the first 2 years after the account is set up (the rules were not changed for 401(k)
accounts); removing the requirement for currently employed workers (but not for former employees)
that they must begin drawing benefits from their defined contribution pension accounts at age 70.5;
and simplifying some administrative rules.
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in after-tax dollars, but contributions to defined contribution plans can be tax
� changing nondiscrimination rules and other regulations so as to encour-
age employers to establish and expand pension plans;
� changing age-discrimination laws to encourage employers to retain older
workers and provide benefits to them (e.g., giving employers flexibility to alter
compensation for older workers);
� mandating additional pension plan design constraints for employers, such
as indexation of pensions and altering the ability to offset employer pensions by
Social Security benefits;
� allowing employers to opt out of Social Security (as is possible in the
United Kingdom) and provide comparable or better benefits through pension
plans; and
� mandating employer pensions.
Some of these policy proposals (e.g., a policy to require all employers to
provide pensions) are radical steps that would require careful consideration of a
wide range of effects, not only on retirement income security but on the economy
more broadly (see "Outcome Criteria" below). In general, it is important to
assess whether changes that are proposed to increase retirement security would
actually have the desired effect or its opposite effect, for example, by inducing
employers to opt out of pension plans. It is also important to consider the
interactions of employer pensions with the corporate profits tax and other tax
policy provisions and with the Social Security system. Many employer plans are
designed to be integrated with Social Security (by paying different amounts of
benefits for earnings below the Social Security payroll tax threshold), so that
Social Security policy changes may affect these plans.
Other Personal Savings and Wealth
Personal savings other than pension plan contributions are another potentially
important source of retirement income support. IRAs are one type of personal
savings that government policy has encouraged in order to increase retirees'
income security. There is likely to be policy interest in modeling such options as
raising the annual limit on the amount of tax-deferred contributions or allowing
withdrawals for other purposes in order to increase incentives to contribute to
IRAs, increasing (or decreasing) penalties for early withdrawals, and mandating
that income be taken in the form of regular payments or an annuity and not as a
lump sum.
Generally, it is important to address policy changes that affect people's
ability to acquire wealth, broadly defined (including tax-deferred and non-tax-
deferred financial investments, property, insurance), and save it for retirement, as
well as to pass it on to the next generation. Given the pressures on Social
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Security and the leveling off of growth in employer pension coverage, the baby
boom generation may need to rely significantly on their own savings or bequests
from their parents for retirement income.
The direction of policy with regard to parental assets is not clear. There may
be reason to encourage older cohorts to hold assets for bequest purposes so as to
enhance the retirement income security of their children. In this case, it would be
important to model policy changes that protect assets against the risks of long-
term health care costs for example, subsidizing long-term-care insurance.l2
Alternatively, there may be reason to encourage current retirees to use their assets
to reduce the taxpayer costs of providing health care and other benefits to them.
In this case, it would be important to model such policy changes as raising estate
tax rates; taxing capital gains on inherited assets; lowering asset limits for pro-
gram eligibility (e.g., for Supplemental Security Income) or imposing asset tests
(e.g., for Medicare or Social Security); and encouraging reverse-mortgage-type
programs to allow the elderly to unlock housing equity.
If lack of understanding of needed savings levels is a factor in the low rate of
personal savings for current workers, it would be important to model the effects
of financial education programs. Such programs include direct education by
government agencies (e.g., the Social Security Administration and Department of
Labor) and programs to encourage or require employers to provide education to
employees about pension plan contribution opportunities and investment strate-
Finally, it could also be important to model the effects of changes in federal
government fiscal policy on savings and wealth accumulation generally.
Health Care Needs and Costs
Health care needs and costs are an important, as well as a highly uncertain, aspect
of retirement income security and well-being. To the extent that medical care
costs continue to rise, particularly for the elderly, no assessment of retirement
income security is complete without consideration of health care needs and costs.
In this report, we do not address models or modeling issues for the health care
system as such. However, for completeness, we identify some of the kinds of
policy changes for which there is likely to be interest in modeling. We also
believe it is important to have links between projection models of retirement
income security and health care costs and benefits.
There are a number of possible health care policy changes that relate specifi-
cally to retirees. Some of these changes are directed to making adequate health
12The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 made an important change for
current workers by allowing employers to sponsor tax-advantaged long-term-care accounts for their
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insurance coverage more widely available; others are directed to curtailing utili-
zation of services and reducing costs:
� equalizing the tax treatment of employer-provided and individually pur-
chased health insurance;
� mandating the provision of health insurance coverage for retirees by
former employers;
� providing spousal protection in employer-sponsored health insurance
providing government insurance for long-term care (or providing tax in-
centives to purchase such insurance); and
� making one or a combination of changes to Medicare, such as: changing
coinsurance rates and deductibles, changing the mix of benefits (e.g., providing
prescription drug coverage but curtailing some other kinds of benefits), increas-
ing Medicare payroll taxes, providing incentives for enrollees to move into man-
aged care or to set up medical savings accounts, providing vouchers for enrollees
to purchase lower cost private insurance, means-testing the receipt of Medicare
benefits, improving the monitoring of Medicare claims to reduce unneeded ser-
vices and fraudulent claims, or turning Medicare into a catastrophic insurance
program with the expectation that private insurance will cover expenses up to the
ceiling at which Medicare begins to provide benefits.
In order to evaluate the costs and benefits of alternative policy proposals, such as
those just listed, decision makers need information on a range of outcomes. In
consultation with members of a Social Security Advisory Council technical panel
(cochaired by our panel member Olivia Mitchell), we developed a list of outcome
criteria (see 1994-95 Advisory Council on Social Security Technical Panel on
Trends and Issues in Retirement Saving, 1995~.
Retirement Income Adequacy An important evaluation criterion is how a
policy change affects the adequacy of retirement income. Measures of income
adequacy include the poverty rate for the elderly, which focuses on the most
vulnerable subgroup in the population, and the rate at which public or private
pension income replaces earnings for all groups of elderly people. Information to
apply this criterion requires a capability for disaggregation of projection model
inputs and outputs (e.g., disaggregated data on earnings histories to estimate
replacement rates for people with lower, average, and higher earnings).
Insurance Against Income Fluctuations Another criterion by which to
evaluate the entire retirement income system, including Social Security and em-
ployer plans, is how well the system provides insurance against unforeseen events
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that cut off a worker's flow of income. Thus, Social Security and many employer
pensions offer survivor and disability benefits and also permit early retirement
for those without appealing job opportunities due to industry downsizing or
obsolescence of skills, as well as for those who prefer leisure. (Another pension
issue noted above that has an insurance aspect is whether to restrict lump-sum
payments of pension benefits and thereby require individuals to insure against the
risk of above-average longevity.)
A cost of providing such insurance is that its availability undoubtedly intro-
duces labor market inefficiencies, such as encouraging early retirement or appli-
cation for disability benefits. The question then is whether a proposed retirement
income policy change achieves an appropriate balance between increasing insur-
ance against unforeseen income shocks and increasing distortions in labor mar-
Equity of Taxes and Benefits Within and Across Generations Current
retirement income policies often involve transfers within and across generations.
For example, in some employer pension plans, healthier people may, on average,
receive more lifetime pension benefits than less healthy people with the same
contributions because of their longer life expectancy (the same is true of Social
Security). A comparison across generations shows that current retirees are the
beneficiaries of large net transfers of Social Security benefits from current work-
ers who are paying more in payroll taxes and will receive less in benefits relative
to their contributions than current (and past) retirees. Assessments of proposed
policy changes will often need to consider issues of within- and across-genera-
tional equity.
Financial Soundness of the Retirement Income System Clearly, an impor-
tant outcome criterion for any proposal to change the Social Security system
concerns the implications for long-term actuarial balance of taxes and benefits.
Reforms that do not provide for balance in the system over the standard 75-year
projection period, or even longer, are not likely to be acceptable. Similarly,
proposed changes in the rules under which employers maintain their pension
plans, and under which individuals save for their retirement, should be consid
ered from the perspective of their likely effects on the financial soundness of
these plans. Two other issues are the extent to which government guarantees of
pension benefits, such as are currently provided by the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corporation, should be provided as a back-up to private-sector guarantees and the
appropriate price to charge for these guarantees.
Avoidance of Market Inefficiencies Another important evaluation criterion
is the extent to which a policy change avoids introducing or exacerbating market
distortions with respect to individuals' choices of labor versus leisure and savings
versus consumption.
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Although research knowledge is not definitive about the magnitude of the
effects on labor-leisure choices, it is clear that Social Security, employer pen-
sions, the tax code, and other policy levers (e.g., disability benefits) influence
people's choices, including their decisions on hours of work early and late in their
careers and their decision about when to retire and whether to retire completely or
only partially. It is important to know the extent to which a proposed policy
change increases or reduces market distortions in terms of labor-leisure deci-
Social Security, employer pensions, the tax code, and other policy levers
(e.g., publicly provided health care benefits) also affect people's choices about
how they allocate income between savings and consumption during their work
years and during their retirement years. It is important to know the extent to
which a proposed policy change increases or reduces market distortions with
regard to pre-retirement savings in order to support post-retirement consumption.
For example, Social Security could move toward ensuring adequate retirement
accumulations by making retirement benefit payments depend more on the size
of employer pension contributions. But such a policy would lower the value of
any employee pension contributions or other personal savings, thus encouraging
individuals to save less on their own during their working lives. Such distortions
in the savings-consumption choices of individuals throughout their lives can have
direct effects on the economy.
Encouragement of National Savings It is widely believed that U.S. savings
rates (including individual, corporate, and government savings) are too low, ei-
ther to provide adequate income support to future retirees or to provide adequate
investment levels with which to increase future economic output and the overall
standard of living. Hence, one criterion for evaluating a proposed policy change
is the extent to which it would increase national savings. For example, current
restrictions on the extent to which employers can prefund defined benefit pension
plans are designed to increase federal tax revenues in the short run, but these
restrictions probably decrease corporate savings, certainly in the short run and
perhaps in the long run as well, with the result that the net effect on national
savings may be negative (see Schieber and Shoven, 1993; England, 1994~. In this
case, it is important to have estimates of the effects, not just on tax revenues, but
on aggregate national savings.
Encouragement of Overall Economic Efficiency, Competitiveness, and
Growth For some kinds of policy changes, it is important to consider effects on
the behavior of employers that, in turn, affects the overall efficiency of the
national economy, the rate of economic growth, and the ability of the United
States to remain competitive in world markets. For example, a policy change to
require all or a large proportion of employers to provide health care benefits for
their retirees or pensions for their workers could have macroeconomic effects.
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Such mandates on employer behavior might affect the industrial structure of the
economy or the rate of real economic growth.
Cost-Effect~veness of Benefit Program Administration In evaluating the
effects of retirement-income-related policy changes, policy makers should recog-
nize the existence of important issues involving the efficiency and effectiveness
of program administration. For example, "leakage" occurs in the Social Security
system to the extent that benefits are paid in the name of deceased people or to
disabled people who could return to work. However, minimizing leakage of
benefits could entail increased costs for program administration. In the private
sector, there is concern about the effects of government regulation of pension and
health care benefit plans on employers' costs for plan administration and, in turn,
the effects on employer decisions about whether and what kinds of plans to offer.
If some or all of the Social Security system were privatized, it would clearly be
important to evaluate the likely efficiency and effectiveness of schemes for ad-
ministering workers' IRAs. Similarly, administrative costs are an important
evaluation criterion for any major change in the health care benefit system, in-
cluding changes to Medicare.
Evaluating one or more policy proposals on the range of outcome criteria listed
above presents formidable challenges for projection models. Although few policy
changes require information on every criterion, most changes will need to be
evaluated on several criteria. There are often trade-offs to consider: for example,
selecting the desired balance between benefit reductions and tax increases to
restore actuarial balance to the Social Security system. Evaluating proposals on
a range of outcome criteria is also important because policy changes can change
behavior in ways that alter the original estimates of costs and benefits. For
example, a policy change to maintain the adequacy of income for future retirees
by, say, requiring increased contributions to employer pension plans or increased
Social Security payroll taxes might induce workers to reduce work hours and
thereby decrease their pension plan or payroll tax contributions.
Program Interactions
Because there are many retirement-income-related policy areas and many differ-
ent agencies handle different areas, it is difficult to carry out integrated analyses
that consider interactions among components of retirement income security and
the overall effects of policy changes. Typically, policy debates focus on only one
component of retirement income, such as employer pensions or health insurance
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coverage. And decision makers often ask for answers to policy questions that are
relatively narrow in scope: for example, how many small businesses will offer
pension plans if certain kinds of regulations are relaxed or how the value of self-
directed pension plan contributions will be affected by campaigns to educate
workers about investment choices. At times, decision makers focus on entirely
unrelated aspects of retirement-income-related policy proposals: for example,
recent changes in tax laws on pension funding were evaluated for their potential
to increase revenue in the short term without considering the possibly adverse
effects for retirement income such as leading employers to drop or scale back
their pension plans (see, e.g., Lindeman and Utgoff, 1992~.13
It will often be appropriate and cost-effective to have projection modeling
tools that address specific policy levers and issues. Yet it is also critical to have
broader based modeling tools (or ways to link issue-specific models) to consider
the effects of policy changes on retirement income security overall. Even when
the focus is on specific policies and narrow issues, it is important to consider such
interactions among components of retirement income as the following:
� many employer pension plans are linked to the benefit structure of the
Social Security system, so that plan provisions could be expected to change if
Social Security changes;
� Social Security retirement and disability insurance benefits are competing
sources of support for early retirees, so that changes in one program can be
expected to affect the other; and
� newer forms of employer pension plans that allow workers to determine
the level of their contributions and the choice of investment vehicles are very
similar to other kinds of personal savings, so that there is a strong reason for
analyzing them within the same framework.
Retirement income and its components exhibit considerable heterogeneity among
population groups. Almost all workers are covered by Social Security, but there
is wide variation in the extent to which workers are covered by employer-pro-
vided pensions and in the provisions of such coverage. There is also variation in
the amounts and form of pension benefits provided upon retirement: for ex-
ample, whether benefits are taken as lump sums or annuities and whether annuity
payments are indexed for inflation. Finally, there is wide variation in the popula-
tion in personal savings behavior, earnings capacity, labor market opportunities,
1 3Sometimes, the broader implications
e.g., U.S. Treasury Department, 1991).
of tax law changes are studied after their enactment (see,
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the availability of income support from other family members, and health care
needs and resources.
Consequently, there are significant disparities in income and wealth taking
account of all sources among retirees and workers, which means it is important
to evaluate policy changes for their distributional as well as aggregate effects.
Some models may usefully focus on constructing important overall estimates-
for example, projections of the balance in the Social Security trust fund by
using aggregate, or relatively aggregate, inputs. However, there must also be
projection models that can reflect the heterogeneity in the population and show,
for example, whether a proposal helps some retirees but not others. These effects
are as important to understand as the central tendencies. Indeed, much of the
focus of government retirement policy is on ensuring some minimum living
standard for the elderly people who may have been unlucky or unwise in prepar-
ing for their post-work years. Models are needed that can produce estimates of
the likely numbers of such people, as well as estimates of the average experience.
In this regard, as the policy process increasingly looks to encourage people
to assume more of the burden for their own retirement saving, models are needed
that can simulate the effects of differential risk. Currently, promised benefits
from Social Security come from the entire tax-paying population, while defined
benefit pension plan entitlements come from employer resources, with backing
from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. In other words, the risks to
retirement income from such factors as downturns in markets, productivity de-
clines, recessions, and poor business judgment are spread widely. In contrast,
individual investments in defined contribution pension plans, IRAs, or privatized
Social Security accounts are subject to risks that potentially vary widely. Some
people, helped by good judgment and fortunate timing, may achieve windfall
gains while others suffer large, unanticipated losses. Models need to be able to
plausibly simulate variations in rates of return on investments across time and
population groups in order to assess the distributional consequences for retire-
ment income security within and across age groups and generations.
Time Horizon
When assessing retirement income security overall and for population groups, it
is critical to have models that can estimate the longer term as well as short-term
effects of alternative policies. Many changes for example, in the tax treatment
of employee or employer contributions to pension plans are not likely to alter
the behavior of people who are near retirement, but such changes may well have
significant behavioral effects on younger workers and their employers over the
longer run. In turn, behavioral responses to policy changes may have yet further
consequences for long-term outcomes.
The longer the time horizon for a policy projection, the more difficult it is to
build in plausible assumptions about policy interactions, behavioral responses,
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and the like. For example, large, unanticipated changes in fertility behavior in the
post-World War II period have periodically upset long-range population fore-
casts. Projecting over the long term can be more computationally taxing than
projecting over the short term, but much retirement-income-related policy analy-
sis, by its nature, requires long-term projections. Consequently, there is a pre-
mium on building models with capabilities for sensitivity analysis and other
methods of estimating the much greater uncertainty in long-range forecasts.
Knowledge About Behavior
Many behaviors and processes contribute to the retirement income security of
current and future generations. The capability to address important questions
about many retirement-income-related policy proposals, particularly over the
longer term, requires a solid base of research knowledge and ways to incorpo
rate that knowledge effectively in projection models in such areas as:
� employers' decisions about whether and what types of pension plans and
other benefits (e.g., health insurance, disability benefits) to offer employees;
� employers' labor demand choices, particularly for older workers;
� performance of capital markets that determine the value of pension hold-
ings and other forms of saving and of group and individual annuity markets;
� people's choices about how much of their income to devote to savings
versus consumption at different stages of the life cycle and what kinds of invest-
ment decisions to make;
� people's labor supply choices at different stages of the life cycle, includ-
ing job search and home production;
� basic demographic processes that affect the numbers of working-age and
retirement-aged people, especially mortality, as well as net immigration, and
depending on the length of the projection period fertility;
� people's marital histories and living arrangements, joint decisions with
other family members about labor supply and savings, and the likelihood of
financial and other support from relatives;
interactions of trends in mortality and marital status with trends in retire-
ment benefits (e.g., increased use of lump-sum payouts), which may affect retire-
ment income security over the remaining lifetimes of retirees and their survivors;
� people's health status and disability, including trends over time and
changes in status as people age;
� trends in health care costs and health care financing arrangements; and
� interactions between microlevel behavior (decisions of workers and em-
ployers) and the economy.
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A final challenge for retirement income modeling is to provide estimates of the
uncertainty in projection model outputs, which stem from errors and variability in
data inputs, research parameters, and model specifications. The estimation of
uncertainty has been much neglected in policy analysis work. When estimates
have been done, the methods used such as constructing "high," "intermediate,"
and "low" scenarios for long-range forecasts of the elderly population or the
balance in the Social Security trust fund have often had little scientific basis.
Admittedly, the task of estimating uncertainty is difficult. The difficulties
are compounded when a projection model is asked to evaluate a complex policy
change on several outcome criteria over a long time period and when the change
interacts with other policies and behaviors in complex and varied ways for differ-
ent groups. Yet it is precisely in these instances that decision makers most need
to be aware of the likely wide range of uncertainty in the estimates.
The next three chapters address improvements in retirement-income-related
research, data, and projection model capabilities. Research on methods to evalu-
ate quality and estimate uncertainty should be a priority in all three areas, as
should research on helpful ways to convey information about uncertainty to
decision makers. Estimates of uncertainty are vital both to inform the policy
process and to make possible continued improvements in research knowledge,
data, and projection capabilities that can support informed policy debate.


text:
7 Radio Stations from Junin
Listen to radio stations from Junin, from a wide variety of genres like Christian, Pop, Spanish, Talk and Top 40. Enjoy stations such as Radio Belgrano Junin, FM Tango, Radio 1550, FM Kiss, Los 40 Principales - Nexo Junin - 91.1 FM and more. Come find the top new songs, playlists, and music! Listen on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, Blackberry, and other app-enabled mobile phones.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Credits & Info
- Uploaded
- Nov 15, 2012 | 12:28 PM EST
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Author Comments
Follow the Gangnam dance steps with arrow keys, key Q and W!
Rated 1.5 / 5 stars
I actually wanted to say, that although it starts quite interesting, after hearing a some of the tune, I was immediatly dissapointed. Where's the original song? No voice at all. For a Gangnam Dance Training I would at least expect to have the full song, if not, as PoisonHeart below already mentioned, the original video build into it.
One star for the effort and half a star for the grinning horses. But thats all. This "training" leaves a somewhat empty feeling behind.
Rated 2 / 5 stars
Could be really awesome if it was more in tune with the original song. Gangnam parodies are a dime a dozen, and you know what they say about getting what you pay for. I don't, but I'm sure you do.
Anyway, would have been cooler if it was the whole video redone with flash animation and the same keyboard controls you have here.
Speaking of controls, these aren't bad. They make sense, and you don't have to be an octopus to play this game.
However, what's up with the recycled background from the video? and also, why is the image quality on your animated Psy all blurry? Were you going for a pixel style or did you just screencap the animation from someone else's Gangnam parody game and botch the format you saved it to?
Good programming, the timing SEEMS to react pretty intuitively, but in the end I was left feeling pretty uninterested and didn't want to keep playing because I knew there was a good chance that there was nothing more to a game we're tired of seeing.
out of 10....
gfx - 6 (poor image quality)
sfx - 3 (what's up with the Gangnam remix...terrible!)
design - 6 (no creativity)
gameplay - 6 (responsive controls, but dull)
overall, this is no different than every other Gangnam game seen so far...very predictable and repetitive with no individual creativity or application of innovation, whatsoever.
I hate to say this, but it seems an awful lot like hopping on a bandwagon bound for Sellout City.


text:
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1/19/2015 Newark, DE Save This JobMore information about this job: : ModSpace is seeking an experienced Accounts Payable Lead to join our North American Headquarters in Berwyn, PA. This person must have excellent skills and knowledge of A/P processes and policies and serve as a point of escalation. The role
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1/13/2015 Audubon, PA Save This JobJob ID 2015-2270 Location US-PA-Newtown Square Category NSQ Professional Services Type Regular Full-Time More information about this job: Overview: SciQuest is the largest publicly-held provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) procure-to-pay technology. We?re on a Quest to
2/12/2015 Newtown Square, PA Save This JobLocation:Audubon, PA Job Code:PAJH0115 Description Primary Responsibilities ? RFQ and follow up. ? Forecasting. ? Raise Purchase Orders and Work Orders. ? Provide vendors with current prints for all products. ? Review outstanding PO?s daily and follow up with vendors to
2/12/2015 Audubon, PA Save This JobDescription Senior Business Analyst The Business Analyst is the individual who will have primary responsibility to effect, analyze, validate, manage, specify and verify the exact needs of the project stakeholders, customers and end users. The BA will serve as a conduit between
1/26/2015 Exton, PA Save This JobBackground: We are expanding our Estimating team. While the ideal candidate will have experience estimating multi-color sheet-fed print, digital print, bindery, mailing and fulfillment services, we ultimately are looking for Print Industry professionals who have strong
1/19/2015 Newark, DE Save This Job


text:
Probable evidence of scurvy in subadults from archeological sites in Peru. | |
MedLine Citation:
PMID: 10096683 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Subadult scurvy is not well documented in archeological human remains despite the existence of many biomedical references indicating that bone changes do occur in some cases and, because of this, should be observable in human burials. There are several potential reasons for this gap in our knowledge of scurvy. Not all children who suffered from scurvy died of the disease or from other causes when they had scurvy. Scurvy may not leave characteristic bone changes in every case of the disease. Some of the pathological conditions associated with scurvy have been known for many years, but these features may be rare or difficult to differentiate from other pathological conditions. Recently a lesion of the skull has been described that is probably pathognomonic for scurvy, specifically porous and sometimes hypertrophic lesions of the greater wing of the sphenoid. This lesion is bilateral and highly associated with evidence of inflammation at other anatomical sites in the skull. A survey of subadult skulls (N = 363) in the human skeletal collection from Peru at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, reveals a prevalence of 10% of skulls that exhibit plausible evidence of scurvy. Some cases of scurvy also have cribra orbitalia that has been attributed to anemia. In most of the Peruvian scurvy cases, anemia is an unlikely possibility because there is no evidence of marrow hyperplasia. This highlights the need for caution in using lesions of the orbit as an indicator of anemia when there is no other evidence of this disease elsewhere in the skeleton. Anatomical evidence of scurvy offers the potential of providing new and important evidence of diet in archeological human populations. |
D J Ortner; E H Kimmerle; M Diez |
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Publication Detail:
Type: Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. |
Journal Detail:
Title: American journal of physical anthropology Volume: 108 ISSN: 0002-9483 ISO Abbreviation: Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. Publication Date: 1999 Mar |
Date Detail:
Created Date: 1999-05-10 Completed Date: 1999-05-10 Revised Date: 2006-11-15 |
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID: 0400654 Medline TA: Am J Phys Anthropol Country: UNITED STATES |
Other Details:
Languages: eng Pagination: 321-31 Citation Subset: IM |
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA. email@example.com |
Export Citation:
APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex |
MeSH Terms | |
Adolescent Ascorbic Acid Deficiency Child Child, Preschool Diet Female Forensic Anthropology Fossils* Humans Infant Infant, Newborn Male Peru Scurvy / physiopathology* Skull / pathology |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
Previous Document: A prehistoric example of polydactyly from the Iron Age site of Simbusenga, Zambia.
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The Marine 3: Homefront(2013)Sergeant Jake Carter (WWE Superstar Mike "The Miz" Mizanin) of the Marine Corps' Special Operations unit is returning home to his small rural town after a dangerous covert mission in Central America. He's looking forward to spending quality time with his two sisters, dependable Amanda (Camille Sullivan) and young, rebellious Lilly (Ashley Bell). Jake's homecoming is short-lived when Lilly and her boyfriend are kidnapped and he's forced to put his military skills to the test to save them. Taken by Jonas Pope (Neal McDonough), a former college professor turned extremist determined to unleash an elaborate terrorist attack on American soil, Carter will do whatever is necessary to save his sister and stop a madman before it's too late. For more about The Marine 3: Homefront and the The Marine 3: Homefront Blu-ray release, see the The Marine 3: Homefront Blu-ray Review published by Casey Broadwater on March 12, 2013 where this Blu-ray release scored 2.5 out of 5. Starring: Mike "The Miz" Mizanin, Neal McDonough, Ashley Bell (I), Camille Sullivan, Michael Eklund, Jeffrey Ballard (I) Director: Scott Wiper » See full cast & crew The Marine 3: Homefront Blu-ray, Video QualityIts predecessors were shot on non-anamorphic Super 35mm, but Homefront moves the series into the digital age, which has its own plusses and minuses. The film's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is generally sharper than the previous films, with easily visible fine detail in facial and clothing textures, and color is balanced and dense. The image is a bit slicker too; if the other movies had a gritty, definitely-shot-on-film look, Homefront shot predominantly on Red Epic camerasis clearly a digital production. From a normal viewing distance, source noise is only ever visible in the darker scenes. For the most part, there are no real issues with the usual culpritsbanding, DNR, edge enhancementbut the ferry shoot-out sequence does feature some footage taken from small POV action cams, most likely GoPros, which is noticeably compressed and has a distinct rolling-shutter wobbliness. There's also some odd standard definition stock footage here and there. Overall, the picture is about what you'd expect from one of 20th Century Fox's straight-to-video titlesthe cinematography sometimes looks cheap, but there are few technical flaws in the presentation. The Marine 3: Homefront Blu-ray, Audio QualityHomefront arrives on Blu-ray with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that, like the movie itself, is functional but never outright impressive. This is an action movie, so you can expect a few potent explosions, as well as gunshots that spit through the soundfield directionally, but it's also a low-budget action movie, with generic low-budget sound design and a driving, tries-too-hard-to-be-dramatic rock soundtrack. Ambience is quiet, when it's existent at all, and most of the sound is anchored up front. It's the sort of TV-quality mix you might hear on an episode of 24 good for what it is, but not up to big budget movie standards. Clarity-wise, there are no problems, and dialogue is always balanced and easy to understand. The disc also includes a French Dolby Digital 5.1 dub, along with English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles, which appear in white lettering. Blu-ray bundles with The Marine 3: Homefront (1 bundle)
Similar titles suggested by membersThe Marine 3: Homefront Blu-ray, News and Updates• The Marine 3: Homefront Blu-ray - January 22, 2013 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and WWE Studios have officially announced that they will release a combo pack edition of Scott Wiper's The Marine 3: Homefront (2013), starring Neal McDonough, Ashley Bell and Michael Eklund. The release will be available ...
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text:
This Internet-Draft is no longer active. A copy of the expired Internet-Draft can be found here: http://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-rpeon-httpbis-header-compression-03.txt
This document describes a mechanism for compressing streams of groups of key-value pairs, often known as Headers in an HTTP session. See RFC 2616 [RFC2616] or successors for more information about headers.
Roberto Peon <firstname.lastname@example.com>
(Note: The e-mail addresses provided for the authors of this Internet-Draft may no longer be valid)


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What a great deal! It's a little on the warm end, but that's OK because winter is cold! Haven't washed it yet, but so far a 5!
I absoultely love the Comforter set that I ordered. It was better than I expected. The price was great,and quick delivery. Thank you Designer Living!!
I received this comforter set last week. Absolutely LOVE it! Quality is excellent and the price was beyond great! My first experience buying from Designer Living and it was a pleasure!
it is beautiful! Much better than I expected
Utterly luxurious looking! Nice fabric! Shocking price for very nice quality! Shipping was unbelievably fast! Sheen is perfect, not overpowering at all. Truly has a beautiful shade of burgandy. Thank you Designer Living!!!
I was not sure what to expect. This was my first purchase with Designer Living. The price was great, I love the rich brown color. The pattern makes the room look luxurious. I love it! My daughter ended up buying one as well.


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United Kingdom
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We serve both residential and commercial customers with our high powered truck mounted professional carpet cleaning service and upholstery cleaning service in Chesterfield, Alfreton, surrounding areas of Derbyshire, Derby, Dronfield, Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley in South Yorkshire, including Worksop, Retford and Mansfield in Nottinghamshire -
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Providing quality carpet and upholstery cleaning ,throughout Cambridgeshire,Huntingdon and Peterborough. -
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STRAKER ECO Carpet & Rug Care covers SW London & Surrey border areas. We offer Green Business Award winning, environmentally friendly solutions & systems for the cleaning of carpets, rugs and upholstery. One of only 15 Certified Master Rug Cleaners in the UK. -
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Whether you are looking for carpet cleaning in Durham, Whitley Bay or Gatehead, sofa cleaning in Chester-le-Street, Seaham or Morpeth, or leather upholstery cleaning in Ponteland, Peterlee, Sunderland or South Shields, Gunn's Cleaning can help. -
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Hydro Kleen (Scotland) is a family run carpet, upholstery and leather cleaning business covering Edinburgh, West Lothian and Fife. We are available 24 hours a day,7 days a week. -
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Professional carpet & upholstery cleaning company based in the South Wales valleys. We pride ourselves on offering excellent cleaning results, unbeatable value, and a 100% reliable service. -
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Carpet, upholstery and leather cleaning in the South Wales areas.rnComplete flood and fire restoration service. Commercial and domestic contractors serving all sectors of the market. -


text:
Daily Servings of Fruits and Veggies
How Many Servings of Fruits and Veggies Do You Eat Daily?
by Fitness
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Most of you eat fruit more than once a day, so I suspect you're not having much trouble scaling the food pyramid. According to the current dietary guidelines, women under age 50 should eat two and a half cups of vegetables and at least one and a half cups of fruit every day. An apple counts as a cup of fruit, as does a banana. What would you guess you're eating in terms of daily fruits and veggies?
4 years
I eat way more than 5 a day. Spinach, banana and strawberry smoothies almost every morning. Apple for snack twice a day, my lunch and dinner is always packed with mixed veggies or broccoli or spinach or sting beans. I snack on sliced cucumbers with the skin on them. I loooooove veggies and fruit!
4 years
It really depends. Yesterday and today I didn't eat very much in the way of veggies, but some days, veggies make up the majority of my food. My husband isn't a big veggie fan. There are veggies he doesn't mind, but he doesn't enjoy eating them. It's sad :(
4 years
I probably get 8-10+ servings of fruits/veggies a day. I LOVE them and I have a huge appetite, so they help fill me up without me gaining any weight.
4 years
I eat at least 5. Every day, I ALWAYS eat a cup of strawberries, 3 cups of spinach/mixed greens for lunch, and an apple. And then I usually have a vegetable with dinner. So I probably eat more like 6 a day.
4 years
4 to five cups of fruit and veggies a day. Fruit salad and salad at night really help :) Plus adding a side of some steamed veggie helps too.
4 years
i'm protein metabolic type and veggies are not the best fuel for me, i eat some, but limit it
4 years
3-4, but it depends on the day. I'm trying to eat more fresh fruits now more than ever.
Should cups really be used for measurement, wouldn't servings be a better measure? Like for peas, 1/2 a cup is a serving, same with french beans. Other things might be an actual cup, like a salad. Nutritionally, how do they compare? Does it matter?
4 years
I rejoiced the other day when I had finally had my five-a-day. For a person who once averaged one-a-day, that's a feat. Now it's closer to 3-to-4-a-day. @Fizzymartini A cup is 8 ounces (liquid and solid, about 0.22 kg) and 6 ounces (for some solids).
4 years
This is going to sound dumb, but as a non-American, how much is a cup, roughly?
4 years
i eat min. 3 servings of fruit a day and 3 of raw veg then min. 2 of cooked veg. If I could afford it, I would eat twice that amount of fruit and veg, but becasue i buy mostly organic & fairtrade, it's just not possible :( i can't wait for my gran's fig tree or our apple trees to bear FREE fruit haha
Link Love
- Take this 3-minute ab challenge for a stronger core — Self
- How your beauty routine can prevent the flu — POPSUGAR Beauty
- 15 healthy brunch recipes to kick off the weekend — Shape
- The surprising truth about so-called healthy drinks — Cooking Light
- Why every woman needs to lift weights — Fitness
- 5 delicious ways to lower cholesterol naturally — Real Simple
- Tiny tweaks that help you lose more weight — Women's Health


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Website: Audio file or podcast, Resource or activity pack, Map, Virtual exhibition or images County: South Yorkshire A Day in the Life of a Young Sheffield Steel WorkerKelham Island Museum, SheffieldKelham Island Museum | Sheffield
News Anniversary show looks into lives of refugees in celebration of British Red CrossRefugee artists offer a journey into the world of the displaced with an innovative multimedia show celebrating 150 years of humanitarian aid.01 November 2013
News Archives Awareness Campaign project reveals the stories of post-war BritainA series of archive exhibitions and events across the UK is highlighting stories and artefacts representing the varied communities and social and economic classes of post-war Britain.10 August 2011
Website: Resource or activity pack, Map, Virtual exhibition or images County: West Yorkshire Bradford's Industrial RevolutionBradford Industrial MuseumBradford Industrial Museum
Website: Resource or activity pack, Virtual exhibition or images County: West Yorkshire Coal Mining and the VictoriansNational Coal Mining Museum for England, WakefieldNational Coal Mining Museum for England | Wakefield
Review Commonality of Strangers finds no neat conclusions at Nottingham's New Art ExchangeMahtab Hussain, a photographer who specialises in highlighting issues of multiculturalism, portrays the residents of Hyson Green in the gallery within the Nottingham community.04 February 2015
Preview Crapper to Modern Toss: Toilets by Twilight charts cistern history for Museums at NightPink toilet rolls, the Thomas Crapper seat, Carry on at your Convenience and "books about poo" all feature in a hot flush of a Museums at Night event in the Potteries.08 April 2014
Interview Curator's Choice: Five Cornish miners from the Cornish Global Migration ProgrammeMichael Kiernan, Director of the Cornish Global Migration Programme in Redruth, relates five of his favourite stories about Cornish miners, migrants, murderers and divorcees.29 May 2012
Interview Curator's Choice: Lars Tharp of the Foundling Museum chooses a portrait of Thomas CoramLars Tharp, Director of the Foundling Museum, picks William Hogarth's oil-on-canvas painting of Captain Thomas Coram (1740).03 February 2009
In Pictures Environmental Photographer of the Year 2014 winners announcedMohammed Fahim Ahamed Riyad wins the £5,000 grand prize with his piece In Search of Life. See all the winning images here.25 June 2014
Resource or activity pack: Teachers' pack or notes, Worksheets or templates, Resource County: Lincolnshire Epworth Old Rectory new Schools' ProgrammeEpworth Old RectoryEpworth Old Rectory
Review Fate, Hope & Charity: Tokens left by mothers of abandoned babies at The Foundling MuseumStories of eighteenth century women who left their babies with poignant tokens at London children's home, the Foundling Hospital, are revealed at the Foundling Museum.29 January 2013
News Finding The French In Medieval London: A Museum Of London Gallery Tourthe story of how french merchants and rulers were a strong political and social presence in London during the whole medieval period07 March 2007
News Florence Nightingale's letters published online in transatlantic web projectThe handwritten letters of Florence Nightingale have been digitised in a new project between British collections and the Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center.19 August 2014
C24 Feature Foundling Museum celebrates Dr Richard Mead - Georgian doctor to the starsFoundling Museum curator Stephanie Chapman explores the life and work of Dr Richard Mead physician to Alexander Pope, Sir Robert Walpole, Isaac Newton and Samuel Johnson.16 October 2014
C24 Feature Great British Bake Off final: Sophie McGeevor on the art of 19th century home bakingAs millions of people gorge themselves on the final showdown of the BBC cookery contest, historian Sophie McGeevor tells a tale or two of baking past.08 October 2014
Paper-based and downloads: Poster, Resource County: Norfolk Great Hospital interpretive panelsThe Great Hospital, NorwichThe Great Hospital | Norwich


text:
We created Pandora to put the Music Genome Project directly in your hands
It's a new kind of radio –
stations that play only music you like
Chevelle returned in the fall of 2004 with their third full-length effort, This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In), and with it came another hit song, "Vitamin R (Leading Us Along)." Joe parted ways with his brothers in July 2005, and though he was replaced on bass a month later by Dean Bernardini, Chevelle remained a family affair, since Bernardini was the siblings' brother-in-law. With the new member came a newfound energy and optimism that replaced the internal bickering of the past, and the guys carried that spirit into the recording of their next two albums, 2007's Vena Sera and 2009's Sci-Fi Crimes. The following year, the band celebrated its ten-year anniversary in the music business with a pair of live shows in Chicago, later released on the DVD Any Last Words. In 2011, Chevelle announced that they were taking a break from touring to head into the studio, eventually releasing their sixth album, Hats Off to the Bull, in the winter of that year. Following the touring cycle for that album, they went back into the studio with Joe Barresi, utilizing the producer's vast collection of percussion instruments to subtly reinvent their sound once again. Their next release, early in 2014, was the groovy, aggressive single "Take Out the Gunman," with their seventh album, La Gárgola, following in April. ~ Tracy Frey, Rovi


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Packing List
Clothing/Shoes/Weather Gear: Unfortunately, Belgium is a cold and raining country. We can sometimes have hot summer (or nice months of May or September) but take a umbrella with you !
I always suggest to take good walking shoes when you travel because walking around the city the whole day can be painful for your feet. -
Packing List
Clothing/Shoes/Weather Gear: First of all, ask yourself what kind of a holiday you're going to have. If you intend to do alot of sightseeing and walking, you should pack along a comfortable pair of shoes/ sandals. However, if you plan on having a relaxing holiday and visiting the museums et al, then I'd suggest that you pack along some smart casuals and a lovely pair of shoes. Remember, no matter which country you are in, there are ALWAYS a group of people who'd judge you by the way you dress. So, it is always advisable to look presentable at ALL times... unless of course, if you are Madonna herself. Then you can get away with ANYTHING! :-)
Photo Equipment: I ALWAYS, ALWAYS bring along at least 2 camaras with me... just in case one breaks down. My friends used to laugh at me.... until their one and only camera broke down. Then when they had to RELY SOLELY on me and my amateurish photographic skills, they stopped laughing. Yes, immediately. Serve them right! :-))
Miscellaneous: DON'T forget to bring along your ATM card and.... an open mind. Remember, if your ATM card is linked to international networks like 'Cirrus', 'Plus', 'The Exchange' etc, you can withdraw money from any ATM machines in the world. What's more, you'd even benefit from the LOW interbank exchange rates being given to you vis-a-vis if you were to change it at your local money-changer. I have survived on this method for ALL my trips abroad and so far, no ATM machines have failed me. Yes, even in the remotest villages in Africa.
:-)) If you haven't tried this method, I challenge you to do so today. And be pleasantly surprised at how much you can save at the end of the day using this method. I kid you not!
Photo Below: Place du Sablon.
'One of the gladdest moments in human life, me thinks is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one might effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden Weight of Routine, the Cloak of many Cares and the Slavery of Home, one feels once more Happy, the blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood... A journey, in fact, appeals to Imagination, to Memory, to Hope -- the three sister graces of our moral being.' - Sir Richard Francis Burton -
What To Take?
Clothing/Shoes/Weather Gear: The weather here is very changeable-it can be sunny for an hour, rainy for half an hour, then sunny again. So, it's advisable to always have a raincoat or umbrella prepared!
- Family Travel
Specific gear for rainy Brussels (and Belgium)
Clothing/Shoes/Weather Gear: Take with you raincoats or parkas with impermeable fabrics. It applies for winter, fall and... even for summer. Strange but within latest years, July is sometimes rainy in Belgium.
- Romantic Travel and Honeymoons
- Hiking and Walking
- Business Travel
Umbrella of course!
Luggage and bags: Do not forget the umbrella because it rains a lot in Belgium. But you have to accept it and get used to it - anyway the country is nice!
Packing List
Clothing/Shoes/Weather Gear: There is no particular dress code in Belgium.
Miscellaneous: If you visit Brussels in the winter,well bring your umbrella and rain jacket. -
Packing List
Miscellaneous: Take some special beers back home.
In this shop you'll find all kind of beers and a lot of gadgets, t-shirts, ... related to beer.
- Stanhope Hotel
- Royal Windsor Hotel Grand Place
- Le Chatelain Boutique Hotel Brussels
- Manos Premier Hotel Brussels
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