The title pretty much sums up what we’re going to hear more often as the retirement and social security systems in most developed nations rely on new workers to pay for the pensions of the older generation.
The real problem is that capitalist societies haven’t put enough effort into building solid social services that actually take care of everyone. Why should young people today care about propping up the pension funds when most jobs pay so little that they can’t even afford a place to live? It’s crazy that someone could end up homeless after being unemployed for just a few months, which happens way too often these days. Plus, you have so many adults living with their parents longer than what we’d consider normal 30 or 40 years ago.
This isn’t just about different generations clashing it’s more about government failures. The US showed us a terrible path by pouring money into the military and pointless wars instead of helping its own citizens. Now that most western countries haven’t fixed the declining birth rates, it’s going to be pretty wild to watch their pension systems start to crumble one by one. The retirement ages are getting more absurd by the day. Who really wants to wait until they’re 67 to retire? That’s the age a lot of countries are going for now. Greece is even thinking about pushing it to 67 and a half after only raising it from 62 last year. And Denmark’s talking about possibly raising it to 70!
At 62, even most people do...
I don't care about funding your retirement
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What is new about this? This has all being going on for generations and there is no big uproar like you pretend there to be. Many developed countries actually encourage private pensions, sometimes forcing employers to match contributions by the employee up to a certain level and forcing a manual opt-out if a person does not want to participate. Looking after your elderly and less able people is something to be proud of - to a point, it has to be finely balanced and sometimes they may receive too many perks or increases. Frankly the American model is severely broken, just look at the absolute mess of healthcare in that country where they pay insane amounts for basic things and any sort of accident/illness can financially ruin someone forever. Nothing about their sort of social safety net model should be copied. The more people that look after their own pensions responsibly and build it up towards retirement, the less friction that there will be in future as people have more freedom throughout life. Be more concerned with employment figures so they can actually accrue money until that point.
Don't worry. The technocrates are going to save Generation Z through universal basic income and AI. Everyone will have the opportunity to have their personal employee robot to take care of every daily tasks, so it won't be necessary to work anymore, just like the new generation has always dreamed about!
And in counterpart, people will just have to give away their DNA and total access to their brain cells to the technocrates, so they can modify, investigate and monitor it as they wish! Of course, always aiming your welfare and satisfaction.
Well you sure found the bright side The pressing issues and fears facing both older and younger people have something in common, and many of you already know the brutal truth. Seniors concerned about the failing socialist schemes, and young people concerned about being prisoners in a high tech world are both being affected by decades of big government growth, over-spending, and erosion of freedom.
ps. Crypto can help many people, perhaps ASAP we can learn how to earn a better reputation as a community?
I would never expect technology to make our lives easier to such great extent. While it should be common sense that governments should do their best to create maximum benefit form the vast majority of people, in their current form, world governments generally only strive to maximize the efficiency of how corporetions can milk individual labour and even then empiverish individuals of their earned wages to the maximum extent.
In my country, our pension systems, both the one that covers the private sector and the one that covers the government sector, are having a fund life of around 3 decades. Meaning, if things remain unchanged, many paying members aren't yet in their retirement ages when these pension systems die.
In other words, the systems aren't sustainable. Definitely, it's mainly incompetence and corruption that's the problem. They have so much money, but the people in charge, who are there not because of credentials but political connections, aren't optimizing the opportunity.
Because of incompetence, laziness, mediocrity, greed, and what have you, the only way they know to extend the life of the systems is to increase contributions. In short, they pass everything to the members.
So, yeah, why should I pay? That's a waste of money. Unfortunately to employees and employers alike, it's compulsory. The only for the government to make their broken pension systems work is to force them to make contributions.
A major problem with the American system is that it focuses on profit for investors rather than affordable service to the public. For example, if you build a model where two companies have a hospital in the US and a developed EU economy, the company with a hospital in the US will make more profit even though both hospitals have the same number of patients for the same problems every day.
This is another reason why the US has a lot of millionaires. In Europe, even though profit is a goal, the service being affordable is also a goal.
With a system like the US, you will have more investors and more companies, thereby creating more jobs and higher pay because of competition, which means there will be more money in the country for the people, but since services are not built to be affordable, they will still spend ridiculous amounts on things like rent and medical bills.
boss_wizardSenior Member
Posts: 270 · Reputation: 1192
#8May 28, 2018, 10:52 PM
The Universal Basic Income may or may not come but AI taking over job is coming. Either we gonna get UBI with all these AI taking over jobs living in an utopian world or we're gonna become broke when UBI isn't a thing yet AI already taking over job.
We're so cooked .
its_cipherSenior Member
Posts: 190 · Reputation: 1319
#9May 29, 2018, 01:20 PM
Reading this, I am once again surprised at how lucky the baby boomer generation was to live in a better era (the second half of the 20th century). In fact, this whole generation is going to live in clover all their lives. Throughout his life, his wealth has only grown. Moreover, with some reservations, the same can be said of the same generation in the USSR. And now their grandchildren, and even more so their great-grandchildren, have been turned upside down. So the pension systems have exhausted themselves. After all, all these systems were built with the expectation of population growth or at least the preservation of numbers. And the population is decreasing.
Thats just a load of vague talk that doesnt really say anything. The problem with pensions is that when they were first introduced, life expectancy was lower than the retirement age. It was also because infant mortality was higher. But when someone retired, they would normally start receiving a pension a couple of years before they died. Nowadays, the norm is to receive it for about 20 years before passing away. Whats more, there used to be about seven active workers to fund the Ponzi scheme, not two as there are now.
This is a breakdown of public spending in Spain. As you can see, pensions ('pensiones') are by far the largest item of expenditure in the budget. And they are partly funded by debt. Yes, we could cut spending here and there, but just to fund even more pensions?
kevinviperFull Member
Posts: 43 · Reputation: 288
#11May 29, 2018, 03:12 PM
In Russia, officials are increasingly spreading rumors in the media about canceling pension payments because the federal budget is short. Therefore, I don't rule out the possibility that such a bill will be submitted for consideration. This would, of course, be catastrophic for a huge number of pensioners. How will they manage to eke out a living? No one can answer this question. Such a decision would likely lead to riots and a restructuring of the political regime. Very difficult times lie ahead for Russia.
Hmm. It's definitely something to talk about, but what I'm concerned about is that it's more of the trust towards the government, right? Plus, not all jobs are equal, meaning some people will retire early and others will retire late. There would be a consideration of that as well.
We know that physically demanding jobs could lead to earlier retirement. If you have knowledge-based work, you may be able to remain in the workforce for a longer time. Different contributions to the pension.
There should be revisions on how it is today so people would still be able to contribute.
The retirement system is going to collapse every several decades. Most people(including me) won't be able to retire when they reach age of retirement. The pension system is going to collapse under the pressure of demographic decline, unemployment caused by AI, growing national debts, etc. I have no hope for retiring and getting a pension. Even saving money in a pension fund won't do the work. The stocks and bond markets are going to crash soon, due to the upcoming global crisis(AI bubble popping and high oil prices). The governments are living because of debt and they can't continue without borrowing more and more money. Currency devaluation and inflation represent yet another problem.
There's no hope for us. Just work until you die and that's it.
viper_blockSenior Member
Posts: 205 · Reputation: 1216
#14May 29, 2018, 10:18 PM
People can't rely on the government preparing their pension even the government guarantees people will get it monthly. People should keep survive by having more sources of income so when they pension, they still have an income to live.
People aged 30 or 40 years should plan for their retirement so they can starts other things and earn more money. Having investment is another choice that they can prepares for their future. We don't know how long we will live but if we can prepare, we will not have a trouble later.
Young generations should aware so they can also preparing their retirement better. They have more chances as in their ages, they can do many things.
If all things work smoothly, they don't have to worry but don't forget to make backup plans. They have more sources of income from what they do before so they can enjoy their pension well.
Europe didn't invest in its military the way the US did and now Russia is taking Europe. Iran developed its military as hard as it could, and even the US and Israel together can't take that country down. The whole world fears North Korea. Sure, South Koreans might have pensions but their neighbor's artillery could make sure there's no one left to collect them.
And then there's China. After the US loses in Iran, it'll strip the citizens of Taiwan of their pensions too. But go ahead and worry about budget deficits and keep believing you'll live to see your retirement
How I wish to have lived those times... Although technology wasn't so developed yet, those were more stable times, with the best movies, music and lots of hopes and expectations about the future. Maybe they were just naive, but the atmosphere was much better, anyway.
The ironical side is that even though they had a great time and knew quality for real, they still failed to deliver a better future for the following generations. I guess what should be done is to find the "missing link" between that lost previous world and current chaotic and disruptive one.
bridge2018Full Member
Posts: 50 · Reputation: 405
#17May 30, 2018, 09:29 AM
Our government has already removed the pension because they found that they are paying more for pension that can be utilized into something for the development and that is the fair move I guess, one should prepare for their retirement while they are working itself, don't expect their returement becomes the burden on tax payers.
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