this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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An older article complained that people are retiring too early and becoming a drain on the economy.
How does that work exactly? In most countries, surely you only get access to any state pension at the ever-increasing retirement age. My point being, if you are able to retire early, it's on your own dime, right?
In most systems your pension taxes are not stashed away until you retire and then handed to you. Instead your taxes are used to pay the pensions of people currently retired, with the understanding that the next generation will pay for your pension. If you stop working too early and you stop paying taxes, the system breaks down.
That said, I really don't think that this is a real problem. The real problem is that baby boomers are now retiring in droves, turning from the major contributors of the pension system to the biggest drain, and with a population shrinkage, it's uncertain how we'll be able to keep funding the system.
That's all true. But then they're not really a drain, and while not paying income tax any more they're usually spending their retirement in other ways which produces tax income still.
I'd agree we have a problem though. I'm Gen X and my state retirement age is already +4 years on what it would have been. I cannot see that getting any better any time soon.
I'm Gen Y and with the birthrates as they are here, I'm not seeing myself ever getting a pension. The math just doesn't work out