27) The impossibility of retirement Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74

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The impossibility of retirement Each of us dreams of a quiet, carefree retirement without stress. Especially representatives of pension insurance companies show us pictures of happily smiling sixty- and seventy-year-olds when they want to sell their products. In earlier times, the family father built a business that the son would then continue, or fathered a great many children who could look after him in old age. Usually three, but often four, generations lived under one roof if they made it into this age. I'm not thinking of centenarians here. The women had their first child at the age of 15. So with “luck or bad luck” she might be a grandmother at 30 and a great-grandmother at 45. Today we are amazed when someone says that he / she has 3-4-5 or even 6 children. This “child poverty” is a necessity, especially in Europe, since we are the region with the highest population density after China and India. However, who cares for us when we grow old? Bismarck, one of the greatest fraudsters in German history, introduced state pension at his time. He needed money to achieve his huge military and political goals. If he had honestly told the little citizen that he, Bismarck, had in mind turning Europe upside down, he would probably not have been given a penny for it. However, Bismarck knew that he would not be in power at the time when pensions were due. So he took the money and used it elsewhere and otherwise. Then everything was lost in the First World War. Then they started again (the little man had obviously not learned anything), which fell victim to the Great Depression in 1929. The next savings were lost in World War II. But the belief in retirement, that tireless spirit, didn't want to die. And that way, people started again to pay their hard-earned money to the state. But in 1990, at the time of the collapse of communism, no war broke out, or only a smaller one in Yugoslavia, that could have saved the good fame of the state. As early as the late 1970s, statesmen had to recognize that neither the non-existent population growth nor the immigration of primarily Turkish guest workers would be able to supply the ever increasing number of pensioners. Let's do the math! To fund a pensioner, around 10 younger people have to pay a tax pension. If we continue to assume that only 7 of these younger people will make it to retirement age, then we need 70 younger people for them. According to this calculation, the population would have to double every 2-3 generations. Anyone who thinks normally will agree that this can only be nonsense. We also live longer and longer, i.e. we are getting older. There are now two ways to solve this problem: - The retirement age is being raised - The population is being persuaded to take care of their own pension again As early as the late 1970s, for example, Germany began to promote this responsibility again. Taxes must be paid for profits; but not so for pension savings, they are an exception here and the interest is usually higher, additionally guaranteed by the state. It all sounds very nice. But what does such a worker or intellectual do, who now suddenly has a larger sum in old age, which he has saved with his own work for a whole life, but for which he has so far not had to take care of, and also usually no financial knowledge? Here the insurance companies propose various options. - The first: He agrees on a fixed lower monthly total for life. If he lives for a long time, the company has lost, if he dies soon, the company has won (they calculate well and rarely lose. This is business.) - The second: He agrees with them a higher sum for a certain period (10-20 years). If he dies before, the rest is inheritable. If he lives longer, he was not lucky. - The third: the company makes investments with his money, for example on the stock exchange. If profit is generated, it is paid out after deduction of processing costs and taxes. If a loss is made, he has lost. If there is still something left, his heirs have to decide how to proceed. - The fourth: He invests himself on the stock exchange (This is a game of chance because he has no inside information. He could also go to the casino). - The fifth: he deposits the money in a bank and receives a pitiful interest rate and is forced to slowly consume his capital. - The sixth: He invests in a company and starts working again to prevent his money from disappearing. There is no way out! And here we come to the fundamental question of whether something like a pension is even possible. To retire for a pension means to save and store. Let's find a single consumer good that can be kept for 40 years (from his twenties to his sixties) without losing its value or decaying! It should be noted here that gold, for example, is not a consumer good. There is none! Food is going bad and today's technical products would be happily received only by museums. That's why we save money. Now! Let's take a small, closed community of people. Everyone works and produces. Now someone is starting to save money, then lend it and live on the interest. "Ideal" everyone would call out. As long as only one person does this, there is no problem with the fact that there is no real product behind this money. But as soon as half of the community starts living like that, there will be a product shortage. We have to work until we “literally” break down, we don't want to starve or burden others with taking care of us. The only question is whether we do not have a little right to care in return for services rendered or whether it is not simply a human right. And how long will statesmen / -women lie us in the face that our pension contributions will be put back for our retirement? When will they finally tell us honestly that these are actually nothing more than additional taxes? Back to list!

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