this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
67 points (98.6% liked)

World News

38529 readers
2274 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Europe's population is aging fast, forcing EU states to spend more on pension benefits. While governments want to raise the retirement age, savers are calling for a more flexible approach.

Europe's demographic time bomb has been ticking for decades, with societies of European Union countries growing older and people living longer. More than a fifth of the European Union's population is now aged 65 or older. That figure is expected to reach a third by 2050. The World Health Organization warned last year that 2024 would mark the first time that over-65s would outnumber Europe's under-15 population.

Despite large increases in immigration over the past two decades, the continent still needs to attract enough workers whose taxes can help cover the growing cost of public pensions. Economists predict that by 2050, there will be less than two workers in Europe for every retiree, compared to three now.

Meanwhile, the annual public pension bill has reached more than 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 17 of the EU's 27 states — all but one of them in Western Europe. In Italy and Greece, pensions cost public finances more than 16% of GDP.

top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)

As an elder millennial, most of us are keenly aware that the systems we've paid into all our lives will not be there for us when we come of age.

That's why I don't bother saving for retirement. I'll just off myself if push comes to shove. Beats vegetating in a care facility for over a decade anyway.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

You have care facilities? The Netherlands also closed most of them in favor of more tailored to the individual home care. It turns out that this is more expensive and labor intensive (a lot of travel time between jobs for specialised care givers), while all the old folks sitting isolated at home waste away in lonelyness.

Who would have guessed?!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Well, "care" is probably a stretch, it's more like languishing areas for the nearly departed. Even the expensive ones. There was a local study a while back which showed that the most expensive care homes typically provided the worst quality of care.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

I just wish I could refuse to pay into the system. The generation I pay for does not deserve it for the shitty world they created and I won't get any of it back when I'm old.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

The bullshit about all of this is in the 80s the Dutch system was flush with cash, everything was setup for success, easily Beiing a lble to pay for the wave of pensioners. Then our government decided that there was too much idle cash, cut on the payments into the system by giving employers a lower percentage to pay. The pension fund who UpTo then could only invest safely in government bonds and such where given the freedom to invest in the market and make higher yields. Now 30 years, the 2008 crash and a pandemic later... There is a cash crunch.

And the people that enjoyed the higher salaries because of the rebates to employers are complaining their pensions are not being indexed because they too got shafted, but some at least they own their houses. The people that retired only on the governments retirement plan are mega screwed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Oh no, who could have seen literally the passage of time coming?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I wish I had a pension to worry about probably losing

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 month ago

DW News - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for DW News:

MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - Germany
Wikipedia about this source

Search topics on Ground.Newshttps://www.dw.com/en/aging-europe-rising-costs-threaten-eu-pensions/a-69896535
Media Bias Fact Check | bot support