In Chile, a public pension does not exist anymore, but workers must invest 10 percent of their wages with a private pension company.

In Sweden, people will have to choose between working longer or lowering state retirement benefits as life expectancy rises.In the United States, lawmakers challenged by President Clinton's recent pledge to fix Social Security are looking to these and other countries for ideas and advice.

"We should listen carefully to their reasons for change and closely consider the aspects of their reforms that could shed light on possible reforms of our own Social Security program," said Rep. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security, which questioned foreign pension experts Thursday.

Financial disaster looms for America's retirement program as more than 70 million baby boomers age. President Clinton said earlier this month he wants to head it off before the end of his second term.

Although an advisory council has suggested retirement funds could be increased if they were invested on booming Wall Street, neither that nor any other ideas under consideration have been endorsed by congressional leaders or the White House.

Foreign experts have been invited this month to testify at several hearings on Capitol Hill and give private briefings to members of Congress of both parties and their staffs. They also have met with lobbyists and political strategists.

View Comments

"There are some important lessons to be learned from these countries. Some of these lessons are both positive and cautionary," said Rep. Barbara Kennelly, D-Conn., at Thursday's hearing.

In Britain, for example, everyone gets a standard public pension when they retire. But since 1985 workers have had a choice of whether to supplement that by keeping a portion of their payroll taxes in a government-run and guaranteed program like Social Security or investing it privately.

The 5.7 million who chose private investment have earned as much as three times the government-guaranteed rate of return, according to Daniel Finkelstein, director of research for the Conservative Party of Britain.

Still, Finkelstein said "in Great Britain, as in the United States, pensions are an extraordinarily sensitive subject, " and leaving people with the choice of staying in the old program was necessary to ease fears of change.

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.