They also have a saving ratio (the percentage of revenue sent to savings, rather than used for consumption) higher than active workers, which is nonsensical. And still, the government wants to put more pressure on actives and revenue of work than any other population categories (e.g. the ulta-richs, pensioners, …).
In the case of pensioners, it can be explained quite easily: the age pyramid as well as the decrease in abstention with age makes pensioners an important voter base to convince. You can’t alienate them and win the elections, even if it means hurting the economy.
This is what is breaking Europe in particular and the West in general. We have a huge generational wealth gap and older generations need to let their acquired privileges to have a fair adjustment to allow the economy to work for everyone. We need to balance the needed support for elderly population with economic opirtunities for young generations.
This is literally the result of boomers being such a large generation and still holding the most political power.
I’ll play devils advocate by saying that now would be a good time to assess the return on investment(both monetary and in quality of life) on keeping old people alive with expensive medical procedures.
I would love to see where Spain is on that scale.
Its ok I heard the french are super amazing because they protest every time somebody wants to change something with their amazing welfare state, because neoliberalism or something bad.
Less children are born, people live much longer, and work much easier jobs than half a century ago, let alone a century ago, yet in France there are political forces suggesting to even LOWER the already low retirement age.
For a developed country, there is no reason right now to have it below 67.
This is so shameful. We are spending billions just for these pensions to rot in unused bank accounts. Especially in Italy, where home ownership rates are almost 100% for the older generation, their monthly expenses are pitiful compared to how much the state gives them. Meanwhile, the educated youth flees the country for lack of opportunity. Absurd.
How.
Old tourists come to my city all year, I see them flex all year round. They are the majority in restaurants. I see less and less young people just enjoying the city, they got priced out.
I’m French
That’s honestly iconic
And you get to chill all day
Same in Spain. Everytime I see the +65 discount in public transport or cultural activities I don’t know wether to laugh or cry.
The same in Greece
There is your answer on why France is up to its eyeballs in debt. The ancients are sucking the blood from their own economy.
So old people literally run the world (home ownership still largely “old” even in those other countries anyway). Will that still be true when the rest of us are old or will “removing” their wealth just transfer it to younger but still rich people anyway? How much is anyone here realistically inheriting?
Demographics have really fucked the west. The entire system was designed around a large or balanced middle age population.
Because they have all the housing as “investment” (aka middle class old people leeching from working class young people).
I don’t think my landlord could make it without my rent. And all because she bought an old flat in the outskirts some 30 years ago for peanuts.
Plus they have all the assets. Houses, land, … When you are renting a flat it probably belongs to some old fuck
Look, another way to look at it is to say that current workers are simply not paid enough. Imo that is the real issue.
Also pensioners usually they have way less costs, a working-age adult usually have higher debt, pay school to kids, rent, etc.
I know pensiones in my country that are travelling the entire year around Europe lol
It’s the same all over
The boomer generation has hoarded wealth and pulled up the ladder behind them
Meanwhile in Iceland the old people are just supposed to wither and die after retirement, my grandparents for example have it ok because they own an apartment, the pension is basically minimum wage for most people and if you gain any additional funds from selling something or working an extra job, even if you get interest rates from some previously owned money, the government will take it while threatening to take your pension from you.
Maybe voting age should be capped to 75 or something like that.
Land value tax would solve this.
As long as the population pyramid looks the way it does, and as long as mass democracy exists, this problem can’t be solved. The French will simply eject any government that tries to fix this. They would default before they cut pensions.
Fucking boomers.
The previous PM said that boomers (his own generation) were living in comfort at the price of the younger generations’ future and it created a huge debate about what everyone already knew: french boomers are rich and they refuse to accept it.
They victimize and want us to believe that they worked their entire life for it and now they deserve it but while wages have increased 30% these past decades, real estate went up by 200% (random numbers but close to reality). How are young people expected to buy a house? Boomers say that young people prefer to buy iPhones rather than save for a house, well granny today’s houses don’t cost 3 baguettes like they did back in your time!!
That’s going to end well.
We’re all heading there. Every year, the share of voters who are retired or soon retired grows larger.
And they will continue to vote for policies that extract more and more from the shrinking working population to give it to the growing retired population.
In Switzerland the boomers recently gave themselves a raise (8,3% pensions increase) in a popular vote and now some of them are foaming because the governement wants to pay for it with a VAT increase (so everybody contributes) instead of increased salary deductions (where only the working population would have paid).
Give younger people the vote, if 90-somethings can vote, so can 10 year olds, same level of mental capacity in most cases.
Well this isnt sustainable. There is a great Greek proverb “A society becomes great when old men plant trees whose shade they will never see” and it is now “Cut down the trees and let young people sit on the stumps”
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This is simply gerontocracy. A society can’t continue to function with these levels of extraction from workers.
I implore voters to educate themselves on alternative systems: https://www.mercer.com/insights/investments/market-outlook-and-trends/mercer-cfa-global-pension-index/
They also have a saving ratio (the percentage of revenue sent to savings, rather than used for consumption) higher than active workers, which is nonsensical. And still, the government wants to put more pressure on actives and revenue of work than any other population categories (e.g. the ulta-richs, pensioners, …).
In the case of pensioners, it can be explained quite easily: the age pyramid as well as the decrease in abstention with age makes pensioners an important voter base to convince. You can’t alienate them and win the elections, even if it means hurting the economy.
This is what is breaking Europe in particular and the West in general. We have a huge generational wealth gap and older generations need to let their acquired privileges to have a fair adjustment to allow the economy to work for everyone. We need to balance the needed support for elderly population with economic opirtunities for young generations.
This is literally the result of boomers being such a large generation and still holding the most political power.
I’ll play devils advocate by saying that now would be a good time to assess the return on investment(both monetary and in quality of life) on keeping old people alive with expensive medical procedures.
I would love to see where Spain is on that scale.
Its ok I heard the french are super amazing because they protest every time somebody wants to change something with their amazing welfare state, because neoliberalism or something bad.
Less children are born, people live much longer, and work much easier jobs than half a century ago, let alone a century ago, yet in France there are political forces suggesting to even LOWER the already low retirement age.
For a developed country, there is no reason right now to have it below 67.
This is so shameful. We are spending billions just for these pensions to rot in unused bank accounts. Especially in Italy, where home ownership rates are almost 100% for the older generation, their monthly expenses are pitiful compared to how much the state gives them. Meanwhile, the educated youth flees the country for lack of opportunity. Absurd.
How.
Old tourists come to my city all year, I see them flex all year round. They are the majority in restaurants. I see less and less young people just enjoying the city, they got priced out.
I’m French
That’s honestly iconic
And you get to chill all day
Same in Spain. Everytime I see the +65 discount in public transport or cultural activities I don’t know wether to laugh or cry.
The same in Greece
There is your answer on why France is up to its eyeballs in debt. The ancients are sucking the blood from their own economy.
So old people literally run the world (home ownership still largely “old” even in those other countries anyway). Will that still be true when the rest of us are old or will “removing” their wealth just transfer it to younger but still rich people anyway? How much is anyone here realistically inheriting?
Demographics have really fucked the west. The entire system was designed around a large or balanced middle age population.
Because they have all the housing as “investment” (aka middle class old people leeching from working class young people).
I don’t think my landlord could make it without my rent. And all because she bought an old flat in the outskirts some 30 years ago for peanuts.
Plus they have all the assets. Houses, land, … When you are renting a flat it probably belongs to some old fuck
Look, another way to look at it is to say that current workers are simply not paid enough. Imo that is the real issue.
Also pensioners usually they have way less costs, a working-age adult usually have higher debt, pay school to kids, rent, etc.
I know pensiones in my country that are travelling the entire year around Europe lol
It’s the same all over
The boomer generation has hoarded wealth and pulled up the ladder behind them
Meanwhile in Iceland the old people are just supposed to wither and die after retirement, my grandparents for example have it ok because they own an apartment, the pension is basically minimum wage for most people and if you gain any additional funds from selling something or working an extra job, even if you get interest rates from some previously owned money, the government will take it while threatening to take your pension from you.
Maybe voting age should be capped to 75 or something like that.
Land value tax would solve this.
As long as the population pyramid looks the way it does, and as long as mass democracy exists, this problem can’t be solved. The French will simply eject any government that tries to fix this. They would default before they cut pensions.
Fucking boomers.
The previous PM said that boomers (his own generation) were living in comfort at the price of the younger generations’ future and it created a huge debate about what everyone already knew: french boomers are rich and they refuse to accept it.
They victimize and want us to believe that they worked their entire life for it and now they deserve it but while wages have increased 30% these past decades, real estate went up by 200% (random numbers but close to reality). How are young people expected to buy a house? Boomers say that young people prefer to buy iPhones rather than save for a house, well granny today’s houses don’t cost 3 baguettes like they did back in your time!!
That’s going to end well.
We’re all heading there. Every year, the share of voters who are retired or soon retired grows larger.
And they will continue to vote for policies that extract more and more from the shrinking working population to give it to the growing retired population.
In Switzerland the boomers recently gave themselves a raise (8,3% pensions increase) in a popular vote and now some of them are foaming because the governement wants to pay for it with a VAT increase (so everybody contributes) instead of increased salary deductions (where only the working population would have paid).
Give younger people the vote, if 90-somethings can vote, so can 10 year olds, same level of mental capacity in most cases.
Well this isnt sustainable. There is a great Greek proverb “A society becomes great when old men plant trees whose shade they will never see” and it is now “Cut down the trees and let young people sit on the stumps”
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