Many countries in Europe and North America have changed the retirement age in an effort to turn government pensions economically sustainable. The basic idea is sound, people can postpone retirement by a couple of years and in return get higher payments from social security or other forms of government pension. People who need or want to retire early can do so but have to either wait for government pension payments to kick in at a later date or accept lower pension income.
Hi Joachim, another really interesting article. We do have retirement age based on the type of job in the UK to an extent - there are lower Normal Retirement Ages for firefighters and jockeys, for instance. But then doing an assessment of all jobs to determine appropriate NRA would presumably be hard...
I'm sorry I can't accept this at all. The principle or the theory is sound, the practice is fraught with deficiencies that cannot be overcome. Capitalism, socialism, monarchy/dictatorship and esp communism all work well in theory until you inject humans.
As soon as those pesky humans get involved self interest dominates and corrupts all of these theories. Express lanes for the Zil limousines in Moscow while the proletariat freeze in partially heated busses in the traffic jam in the adjacent lanes is a simple example.
Strategy with this one, I will work all my life in an office job and have a better lifestyle through higher income and increased savings, lower demands on my body and then quit at 53 to become a labourer who's retirement age is 55. Happy days.
This of course would not work in my country, Australia, as we have a defined contribution system. Most countries and Europe and the United States heavily rely on the defined benefit system which is not even as good as woefully underfunded. This is where this "theory" fails even more so.
When the aged (government) pension was introduced in Australia in 1908 you were eligible to receive it at 65, the unfortunate fact was that the average male had to be dead for 18 months to receive it as the average male age at this time was 63.5.
Now it is over 80!, birth rates have dropped and social security and health care costs have exploded. The aged pension eligibility has grown to 67!
It is clearly "fair" that those with physically demanding jobs retire early. The theory though is useless as tits on a bull, completely unworkable. This is because the current system in most western economies will fail catastrophically, especially those reliant on defined benefit. This theory will only accelerate the inevitable explosion of this system that is already totally doomed to fail.
Of course there will be politicians that may lever this political "opportunity" but the ultimate irony is they too will be in retirement when the retirement system they helped design collapses around them.
I'm glad I'm not too old yet and I'm glad I'm not dependent on defined benefit systems, generational war is coming and this theory, if implemented, will only accelerate the demise of a doomed system.
Hi Joachim, another really interesting article. We do have retirement age based on the type of job in the UK to an extent - there are lower Normal Retirement Ages for firefighters and jockeys, for instance. But then doing an assessment of all jobs to determine appropriate NRA would presumably be hard...
I'm sorry I can't accept this at all. The principle or the theory is sound, the practice is fraught with deficiencies that cannot be overcome. Capitalism, socialism, monarchy/dictatorship and esp communism all work well in theory until you inject humans.
As soon as those pesky humans get involved self interest dominates and corrupts all of these theories. Express lanes for the Zil limousines in Moscow while the proletariat freeze in partially heated busses in the traffic jam in the adjacent lanes is a simple example.
Strategy with this one, I will work all my life in an office job and have a better lifestyle through higher income and increased savings, lower demands on my body and then quit at 53 to become a labourer who's retirement age is 55. Happy days.
This of course would not work in my country, Australia, as we have a defined contribution system. Most countries and Europe and the United States heavily rely on the defined benefit system which is not even as good as woefully underfunded. This is where this "theory" fails even more so.
When the aged (government) pension was introduced in Australia in 1908 you were eligible to receive it at 65, the unfortunate fact was that the average male had to be dead for 18 months to receive it as the average male age at this time was 63.5.
Now it is over 80!, birth rates have dropped and social security and health care costs have exploded. The aged pension eligibility has grown to 67!
It is clearly "fair" that those with physically demanding jobs retire early. The theory though is useless as tits on a bull, completely unworkable. This is because the current system in most western economies will fail catastrophically, especially those reliant on defined benefit. This theory will only accelerate the inevitable explosion of this system that is already totally doomed to fail.
Of course there will be politicians that may lever this political "opportunity" but the ultimate irony is they too will be in retirement when the retirement system they helped design collapses around them.
I'm glad I'm not too old yet and I'm glad I'm not dependent on defined benefit systems, generational war is coming and this theory, if implemented, will only accelerate the demise of a doomed system.