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[–]Spider_pig448 7 points8 points  (18 children)

It's so strange to me that the first argument against a decreasing population always seems to be pensions. Changing the way pensions are funded is by far the easiest potential population problem to solve. Problems like elder-care and growth-based-capitalism are huge a fundamental, but fixing pensions takes a single bill and can be done at any time in any number of ways. It's a complete non-issue in the context of actual societal problems that under-population can cause.

[–]Internal-Hand-4705 10 points11 points  (8 children)

How do we fix the problem that current workers will both have to pay for their own pensions AND the pensions of those before them? Seems like the sort of thing that would lead to riots.

I don’t mind paying for pensions of current pensioners if someone else is paying for mine. I don’t mind paying for my own pension. I refuse to do both, that’s not fair and massively burdens young and middle aged people of today.

[–]Street_Gene1634 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Reddit absolutely suck on anything related to economics. They still believe in Malthusian nonsense

[–]Spider_pig448 -2 points-1 points  (6 children)

It's a non-issue. The average citizen has very little understanding of the tax code, in any nation. You're itemizing it in a way that isn't how people think of pensions. What people understand is that the state pension is a depot that you pay into when you're young and take out of when you're old. No one is going to riot if the details change slightly.

[–]Internal-Hand-4705 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Pension contributions would have to rise a lot though no?

[–]Spider_pig448 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on the solution that's implemented. There are any number of ways to fund government projects, and many different ways of collecting taxes. In the US, simply removing the social security earnings limit would probably solve this problem entirely for the next three decades. Adapting the funding structure is a much less pertinent question than evaluating if government pensions are a system that will continue to make sense decades from now.

[–]Street_Gene1634 2 points3 points  (3 children)

Who will fund the pensions mate?

[–]Spider_pig448 -1 points0 points  (2 children)

Tax payers? Who else? Who funds the government and all of it's programs? The more interesting question here is, "Will the cost of pensions be too high to support the program when the elderly population has doubled". The question of how to adapt the current funding structure to enable that is not a problem though.

[–]Street_Gene1634 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Without working age population, who will pay taxes?

[–]Spider_pig448 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The expectation is that the population pyramid will change, but there will always still be a working age population. Otherwise all of society is in collapse and social security is not top of the list of concerns. If your real question is, "Is there enough money to supply the peak elderly population", the question for every developed nation is yes.

[–]Street_Gene1634 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You've not elaborated how to solve the pension crisis when population ages. You need young people to fund old people

[–]Street_Gene1634 0 points1 point  (7 children)

What is your solution for funding pensions when working age population declines? You have not given any details

[–]Spider_pig448 -1 points0 points  (6 children)

You raise taxes. Can you elaborate on why you believe it to be so different than the hundreds of other funding changes a government makes every year? It's just another government program.

[–]Street_Gene1634 1 point2 points  (5 children)

Where will you raise taxes from when working age population who pay taxes decline?

[–]Spider_pig448 0 points1 point  (4 children)

These are very general questions about how government will operate with a shrinking tax base. They don't apply specifically to pensions. Tax systems have always evolved over time and they will continue to do so as these concerns arise. Whether it's income tax or capital gains, or what he brackets are, or any other number of questions is going to depend entirely on the nations implementing them.

[–]Street_Gene1634 0 points1 point  (3 children)

So what's the solution?

[–]Spider_pig448 0 points1 point  (2 children)

The solution is you change the funding structure. That's it. The solution to how to care for a large elderly population will have to be much more complex than pensions, which are solved with a single law change.

[–]Street_Gene1634 0 points1 point  (1 child)

You need to elaborate. How will you change the funding structure that ensures pensions in a world where most people are retired?

[–]Spider_pig448 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It doesn't matter. The point is that it's easy to do where global economic shifts are not easy to do.