Raising retirement to 69 is “stupid” says German vice-chancellor

[webfact]

Raising retirement to 69 is “stupid” says German vice-chancellor

 

 

BERLIN: -- A proposal made by the German Bundesbank to raise the national retirement age to 69 by 2060 has been slammed by the country’s vice-chancellor who has called it “stupid”.

 

The suggestion by the federal bank is in recognition that the state pension system is coming under pressure as people live longer.

 

But the idea has not found favour with Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel:

 

“If I was a banker at the Bundesbank then I would also come up with these ideas. These are all people with a high incomes, little physical stress and a long life expectancy and large pensions. Craftsmen, saleswomen, nurses, geriatric nurses think this idea is stupid, and so do I.”

 

The German pension system came into effect under Germany’s first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, in the 19th century. It was designed so the young paid for the old, and employers paid a share. An aging demographic and increased lifespan has meant the young have had to support more and more of the elderly population.

 

The retirement age for Germans is scheduled to rise gradually from 65 to 67 by 2030, but the Bundesbank estimates this increase will not be enough to allow the German government to keep state pensions at the level it targets – at least 43 percent of the average income, from the 2050s due to people living longer.

 

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was criticised by his Social Democrat coalition partners in April when he proposed linking the retirement age to life expectancy.

 

However unpalatable it may be the issue is likely to be a hot topic in the country’s coming federal election.

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-08-17

[giddyup]

Sounds like they are feeling the pinch with a million "refugees" bleeding the country dry.

[JHolmesJr]

Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel…a rare find…a politician with a conscience.

 

Most of these criminals are in cahoots with the bankers to begin with.

[overherebc]

In a perfect world everything paid by the workers towards future pensions would be looked after by the government and the banking system to ensure promises would be kept, sh-t, I just found the the one word flaw in my arguement.

[xtrnuno41]

Better understand, pension is not for you to use. With statistics they say you live longer, or is it they see you die younger?

It keeps the money where it is, with big financial companies. They play with it and make the winnings.

They use it to their benefit and NOT to yours, even your "beloved " government.

I heard in documentary bills of 40 million dollar is normal and paid.

There are billions in the funds and with so many billions, a slip of some millions isnt noticed.

And if they cheat or lose money, they think all is ok. Nothing is done, business as usual. They even get their bonus !!

But your pension is going down or delayed, just only for the financial sector to keep it in !

With the beginning of the new century all is in favorite with the big guys roaming money into their own pockets.

The concept of pension is lost, once it was more a social thing, but now you pay for something nothing worth to you.

Managers dont care, as they have fat a-social (now it is social, normal )salaries

The working common people are just colatteral damage.

[halloween]

Oz is talking about raising the pension age to 70. The standard response to pointing out 70 is a bit old for a bricklayer or roof tiler is that they can retrain, and of course there will plenty of positions open for 66yo junior clerks.

The baby boom is usually blamed, a big surge in births now passing into retirement age. Wouldn't have thought that would be a problem for Germany, having their population considerably reduced in the years before 1945.

While they are explaining to elderly people, who have paid tax all their life, that they can't afford their pensions, a costing of the immigration policy might be in order.

[williamgeorgeallen]

really annoys me that politicians make the rules for retirement pensions but dont follow them themselves. in many countries politicians get very large pensions at an early age after only working for a relativly short period of time.

[Usernames]

All across the globe, this bunch is sitting up there monkeying with your lives.  MerkelClintonCameronHollandeObamaTrudeauNietoJuncker, the many headed Hydra with one source of poison.

[chilli42]

By 2060?  Based on the rate of increase in life expectancy, there will be plenty of people living until their late 90's and into the +100.  That is a real problem for pensions and the next generation.  There will be fewer jobs and people living longer.  Credit yo the Hermans for Rd igniting the problem now.

[novo58]

The problem with the entire idea of increasing the retirement age is .......................................

 

what do people do until they reach the new/older retirement age as employers simply DO NOT SEEM TO WANT TO EMPLOY the older /mature age worker.

So these people sit on some type of unemployment benefit ( anyway) as they cannot find another job ( through no fault of their own ).

 

It might be a good idea for those who have a job and who are able to keep that job until they turn 69..............but what about those that lose their job for whatever reason.

 

Also can you be a manual labourer in the building trade until you turn 69 ? Many jobs just might be too physically demanding for people of an advanced age.

[arithai12]

What is "stupid" is the current system, and politicians who defend it. It is obvious that as life expectancy gets longer and longer, the retirement age must be increased. One cannot claim that the average health of a 65 years old in 2016 is the same of a 65 years old in 1960.

Even better: drop the guaranteed retirement schemes, which are mathematically impossible to sustain.

Each one should be able to retire at any age they want, and enjoy the profits of what they have actually contributed during their work lives divided by the remaining years to life expectancy.

 

 

[Ulysses G.]

 "Craftsmen, saleswomen, nurses, geriatric nurses think this idea is stupid, and so do I.”

 

Good for him. It is almost impossible for older workers to get a decent job anyway.

[Keesters]

As a young man at college in the UK during the 70s there was talk of a common market, robots doing man's work, computers making our lives easier, and MORE leisure time. There was even talk of how we would retire earlier as machines took over. Taxes to pay for pensions would come from all the increased production achieved by mechanization.

 

Did we ever get it wrong!

 

I commend this country's government in taking the stance that a politician must be accountable for their actions/in-actions i.e. the Yingluck case. I wish other countries would follow and a few more useless, lying, self serving idiot politicians would end up in court and hopefully jail. We might then get future politicians who cared about the country and people that put them in power rather than themselves.

 

Edited August 18, 2016 by Keesters

[halloween]

1 hour ago, Keesters said:

As a young man at college in the UK during the 70s there was talk of a common market, robots doing man's work, computers making our lives easier, and MORE leisure time. There was even talk of how we would retire earlier as machines took over. Taxes to pay for pensions would come from all the increased production achieved by mechanization.

 

Did we ever get it wrong!

 

I commend this country's government in taking the stance that a politician must be accountable for their actions/in-actions i.e. the Yingluck case. I wish other countries would follow and a few more useless, lying, self serving idiot politicians would end up in court and hopefully jail. We might then get future politicians who cared about the country and people that put them in power rather than themselves.

 

The old dream was that everyone would have a job affording a comfortable life. The new dream is that robot's will do the work, and nobody will have to work. It's the transition period that is going to be tough, and much longer than many expected.

The introduction of autonomous vehicles is the next big step along the way.

[shirtless]

Governments are unaccountable these days im surprised retirement age has not reached 80.

[GOLDBUGGY]

Have to agree this is stupid. 

 

Better to lower the age to 55. Nobody wants to hire you after that age anyway, so you might as well pension them off. 

[SgtRock]

Did the UK Government not cite an EU directive for raising the pension age ?

 

Regardless, the pension age will creep upwards for evermore until they have no option but to scrap the pension altogether.