the time. helo had been appointed ambassador in the new wave after the war as one of the so - called six. 2 helo's relations with the foreign minister were difficult, but paasikivi protected helo right until the end of his period of office. according to brotherus, the foreign minister even went as far as asking the french ambassador in helsinki to cancel schuman's planned visit to finland. paasikivi does state in his diaries that the foreign minister, torngren, said on 24 march, in connection with his weekly visit, that the foreign trade association wanted to make a big event out of schuman's visit, but that the government was not interested in organizing any dinner reception or in devoting any other particular attention to schuman. despite the awkwardness of the arrangements, schuman came to finland on a visit in april, three months after he had left the government. schuman's visit was given enormous coverage in the press. in his presentation schuman stressed that all wars had had their beginnings in precisely six states. " by defusing this hotbed of war, we have done something really fundamental for peace in europe, " he stated. the government did not in fact organize a dinner or devote any particular attention to schuman, unless one counts the supper invitation by social affairs minister, vaino leskinen, at the helsinki community hall, where schuman was to meet some trade union people. president paasikivi was, however, present at schuman's presentation and also had an audience with him. paasikivi wrote in his diaries about the pleasant impression schuman had made on him. schuman believed that the antagonism between france and germany would gradually be removed and that the coal and steel community would be a step towards this. paasikivi went on : " i explained the six is the name given to an opposition group of social democrats who left the party and allied themselves with the communists in the elections after the war. my own view and the position of finland. he understood it well. schuman is indeed an intelligent and charming man ". it was typical of the period that pravda reported on the visit a week later. according to pravda, schuman's visit was undeniably connected with the discussions, which the right - wing socialists had launched, against stepping up trade between finland and the

fund greater future pension expenditures. this last would require both an increase in public saving ( reducing budget deficits and raising the share of capital expenditure ) and an expansion of the private pillar. some of these options have the normative appeal that the current workforce shares part of the burden with future taxpayers. in particular, policies to raise the age at retirement and increase current savings seem preferable, at least for italy, given that in the future people will not only live longer but will also be active and healthy longer. 7 moreover, such policies are likely to increase potential gdp and this will help to alleviate the financial consequences of ageing. morcaldo ( 2007 ). the often overlooked fact that the returns achieved in a funded system depend on demographic developments has been highlighted among others by mirrlees ( 1997 ) and the pension commission ( 2004 ). see also visco ( 2002 ). unfortunately, this does not mean that health - related expenditures will be less burdensome. on one hand, scientific and technological progress in the medical field will probably make more disease curable and lead to higher overall expenditures. on the other hand, a large part of medical expenditures is in any case incurred in the very last years of one ’ s life. all in all, there is a growing consensus among experts and policy - makers that lengthening the average working life and increasing pre - funding are essential to any credible strategy to meet the challenges of ageing. to increase the effective age of retirement, it is important to reduce the disincentives to work embedded in social security rules. payg systems are often not neutral with respect to the retirement decision. indeed, in many social security systems workers ’ pension wealth ( i. e. the discounted value of future pension payments ) decreases with age at retirement, generally because of the weak linkage of benefits to lifetime contributions. the ndc system introduced in italy in 1995 should offset this distortion, as benefits depend on past contributions and on expected longevity at retirement. however, the new system is being phased - in very slowly. other potential interventions relate to the labour market, for example offering broader training opportunities to older employees, increasing flexibility in age - earnings profiles and improving on employment arrangements. if we enlarge our framework to account for uncertainty and move beyond the distinction between funded and unfunded pension schemes, a second distinction comes to the fore, namely that between defined contribution ( dc ) and defined benefit ( db ) systems. the two distinctions are independent of one