My dear daughter,
They’re saying the country has a public pension problem, mostly due to the system having a high deficit.
It’s supposed to have a high deficit – the system was designed to work with the participation of companies.
It’s meant to be a social insurance and to pay at least a minimum wage pension later in life. It is a form of wealth distribution and an arm of the welfare state. It makes sure people who earned as little as a minimum wage during life (most times not even that) will have at least a minimum wage of income later in life when they’re old and unable to work. So they won’t starve to death. It’s doubtful they will get good public healthcare because there is not enough investment in that area nowadays either.
The population is growing older and there might be fewer young people working and contributing to the pension system, but the media never specify the exact rate.
The thing is, even with the population growing older (which isn’t so bad at all, it’s actually a rich country indicator; companies just have to stop being stupid and firing older people to hire younger for half the pay). The GDP is increasing. So, even if there aren’t as many young people working and contributing, companies are still profiting and growing. They can also contribute more, but the plan nowadays is that they quit contributing. They don’t want to pay any taxes or contributions, yet they want the system and the country to succeed.
It would be unconstitutional – the rules state the system has to be financed by workers, companies and government. The latter fulfills its part by supporting the deficit of the system. Workers still contribute, it is automatically deducted from the paycheck. But companies, large or small, are still paying the same – when they pay – and they want to stop paying. That’s where the system breaks, it was designed to work with contributions from the private sector. The issue isn’t on anecdotal frauds, early retirements or time of contribution by individual workers.
The vast majority of families in the country live on minimum wage. Which has increased around 700% during the latest worker’s party governments, but it’s still small. The rich, however, believe it’s too high. Nevertheless, reality shows it’s impossible to eat and pay the rent with the minimum wage in almost every city. It’s simply impossible to contribute to your own retirement on minimum wage, it’s impossible to save money at all. So they are pushing for a future where millions of elderly will starve to death.
The rest will be forced to contribute to private pensions with private banks. They might profit a little in the short-term, but the middle class isn’t wide enough to sustain it. The middle class is a privileged caste in this country, it’s reserved for the very few. They are lucky.
So, current public administrators are not only corrupt with the private banking system, they are stupid. They are driving the country to a future with extreme tension between a huge impoverished population and maybe a dozen very rich families.
Love,
Dad
Aspergers Dad 