19th May 2006, 02:12 PM
Quote:quote:The pension age will be raised to 68 by 2050. In the 21st century and being the third wealthiest country in the world, shouldn't we be reducing the pension age instead of taking this retrograde step?
Certainly not!
When the present pension age was set, it represented roughly average life expectancy, so retirees were only a small number relative to the working population, and wouldn't claim their pension for many years. Nowadays we live much longer, so retirees are a much higher proportion of the population and claim for much longer.
It doesn't matter how good the pension system is, and whether it is 'funded' or paid for out of general taxation; if there are not enough people working to generate the wealth to pay the penions, the system will collapse. This is not an idealogical point, just a practical reality.
In other words, if you end up with the same number of retirees as working people - then each working person is effectively paying the full pension of an individual retiree.
The only solution is to raise the retirement age, or shoot all retirees on their 75th birthday.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished