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No

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Not if you are a man, and not if you live in the European Union.

Men are well known to have shorter lives than women. The exact reasons are in dispute but we do know that men do more dangerous work and that less is spent on medical care for men than on women.

The European Union seems intent on punishing men for so thoughtlessly dyeing bby forcing us to buy annuities (securities that pay a fixed sum until death) at the same rate as women.

The annuity rate that is paid out varies according to the number of years a person is expected to live. If someone is expected to live for twenty years they will receive a smaller annuity than someone expected to be dead in five. This is only reasonable and tends to ensure that what someone gets out of a pension is related to what they pay in.

If the European Unions directive comes into force we will have a situation by which men will retire in poverty despite having paid into a pension for their entire lives. Their only crime will have been to have been born a man.

Learn more about this author, Richard Ford.
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