For two decades, politicians have stared this beast in the face and kicked the can down the road. Now the crisis is upon them and there are no solutions in sight.
This isn't unique to Germany since it's a feature of countries that experienced the baby booner population bubble. The situation in France with its lower retirement age is arguably worse.
The widespread notion in Europe that it was necessary to import a new population to support the ageing original one was to have been a panacea which in practice has led to yet more lips pressed to the shrivelled national teat with all the attendant diversity joy.
Yes of course, France is somewhat ahead of us on the timeline, also their fiscal situation is worse. This may make our politicians feel better but in absolute terms it doesn't make the crisis any less bad.
I suspect it will take something rather more substantial than Macron for hapless Starmer and hopeless Merz to feel better about their own impending political doom. I certainly hope that's the case!
I don't think Merz or Starmer feel very bad when they have to go. The know they are just filling the seat (and their pockets) for a few years, but don't have any intetnion or vision to make any changes.
Their brief is: kick the can down the road.
Probably they hope that in the next few years we will have a very efficient surveilance state, unlimited money printing of the digital euro, and some form of UBI.
This will keep most citizen very silent.
This way the state may survive for many more decades, and maybe they can even keep their leading roles.
They all dream of somehow getting their hands on all those Russian natural resources which with a fragmented State they can plunder to support their dying economies. The reason for the never ending war and attempts at rearming.
Of course it's never going to happen so a sad decline into almost fuedal prison states is the only future.
Switzerland also embraced the Corona regime without much force from above. There really isn't any need for basic democratic participation if the folk just wants all the things that would be imposed on them from the ruling elite otherwise.
In this sense Lauterbach was quite right when he stated that nobody would be forced to take the vaccine. They will always make you to do it voluntarily and comply, no matter what.
How is that to happen? Seriously, just keep printing money and everything is going to be Ok. Fiat money (actually credit since there is always a counter-party risk) is sinking rapidly. Central banks are diversifying to gold (and some silver) and away from fiat currencies including the US$, EU, British Pound. EU will not survive the coming collapse no matter how many fresh fiat currencies their conger out of thin air. Wake up and smell the coffee.....the reign of fiat is rapidly approaching and it is going to be horrific.
> import a new population to support the ageing original one ...
To me a cover story only. The large majority of uncontrolled immigrants are fighting age young islamic males who will never integrate, let alone pay taxes; to draw Europe into disorder and chaos as soon as possible, suppressing Europe largely Christian historic roots, and yes France is certainly clearly ahead of Germany in this respect also with the north African former colonies background.
As always it's not plain black and white but definitely a clear pattern.
Implemented by Merkel, a WEF/NWO minion.
Former immigration waves into Germany (Italians, Turks,.) were different. Many families coming to Germany and virtually no knife-wielding religious lunatics making Germany an increasingly dangerous place to live
The Mexican illegal immigrants in California come here for free health care ,free food ,free education and free housing . A few work with phony social security cards so that helps a little but it is dwarfed by their consumption of public assistance.
The only test needed to assess potential immigrants is the state of the nation their people built. Mexico, Brazil and Guatemala speak for themselves. As does Switzerland or Sweden. We are being destroyed by this nonsense. It baffles me anyone accepts it.
Many people believe all humans share the same values. They will attribute these nations' backwards and chaotic state to lack of money, whereas the truth is that their lack of money is due to their current backwards, chaotic state.
That’s why we voted Trump in. We actually offer illegal immigrants a plane trip home, along with $1000, and a chance to come back legally within 10 years. It’s much easier and less expensive than the ICE detention and ride, and the crowds insisting they need habeas, throw rocks, blocking cars corpus(They have all had due process at the immigration courts. )The problem is not the people. It’s the 20M let in with Biden not on the job.
Well JD Vance and Tucker Carlson don’t accept it . Of course , in the eyes of the progressives both are ..you guessed it ..Nazi’s .
Tucker is funny in that before he says anything he prefaces it with “ they’ll call me a racist Nazi …but ..” I think those words are losing their sting here now . We’ll see .
Yet another proof of organized state crime by a captured govt - "broken social contracts" a nice way of putting it. The parallel execution of destabilisation by uncontrolled mass immigration is more than evident.
"President of the CBSA union REVEALS that Canada lets in refugees via AN APP on their phone due to understaffing.
"
No physical interaction EVER occurs. They land and click a few buttons and walk INTO CANADA and get MONEY! .... 10% don’t even USE THE APP!"
We once stood around a Christmas Market fire, inhaling brawts and Gluhwein when a German man explained each small German village has a butcher, a bakery, a Pub and a church. Merkel expected them each to be saved, when she opened the German borders.
Unfortunately most new arrivals do not consume pork, long a German butcher focus, nor do they visit Pubs or churches, so Angela destroyed the German economic miracle and the enviable German safety net, to save a bunch of bakeries, as the village dies around them. It was an interesting take on current Germany.
The immigration problem is racial. As if the statistically even more murderous and low-IQ sub-saharans were any better for being 'Christian'. And Hindus rape at the same rate as Muslims. I understand that Whites are only allowed to be xenophobic when it's politically convenient for our overlords, the jews: but problems must be correctly and courageously identified before they can be solved.
🇬🇧 In the middle of the night, Bus loads of migrants dropped off at their new luxury hotel, all clutching envelopes and dressed like uniformed Military Personnel.
The migrants in Germany are mostly from Muslim states, who have traditional values. I wonder, if the social security system breaksdown and they have to earn their living, if they will return to a more conservative lifestyle and family structures.
I was with you until the last un-necessary and incorrect phrase ...'the greatest civilization in history.' You have obviously not studied anything outside of Western civilisation.
That's where you're wrong. I studied Asian history at university, and have an interest in pre-Columbian societies in Central and South America.
Nobody else accomplished anything near what the West has. Just look around you. Modern industrial society was built by the West. The highest accomplishments in the arts, philosophy, science, technology, etc. by far are the West's.
...and also finance of course. The main focus of the West's achievements being on materialism, and excellency in inventing implements of destruction, aka arms. All of which is now becoming the Wests undoing.
I'd rather not get into that discussion here; it's not quite relevant to the topic of the post. If you're interested you can study the history of the WORLD, yourself and think about it.
They may come to the USA! They are trying to take over Texas with 300 mosques in one year. The governor is working to limit the number of mosques. Minnesota has become an Islamic state. The new mayor in NYC wants to globalize the intifada, in addition to running the city on Marxist philosophy.
Germany intentionally bankrupted by sky high energy cost (great way to destroy any heavy industry but also means last place in the AI race), the pension issue and the cost of uncontrolled mass immigration. Well done. Only silver lining is that Brussels will collapse next now that it's up to France and Italy to finance the non-elected totalitarian war-mongering and big pharma mafia colluding gang with their tax free salaries. Good luck with that.
Some seem to be waking up in face of reality hitting controlled wokeness. Point of return probably long passed in the targeted countries and regions.
A consolation is destruction won't happen overnight. The Roman empire took 200 years until it finally disintegrated. Quite a few accelleration boosters around this time though.
The tragedy is this undoes decades if not centuries of immigration waves of people leaving their home countries, desperate to find jobs and make a living and peacefully integrating into their new environment.
"The surge of nationalism across the West is a direct response against unhinged globalist leaders whose suicidal empathy opened the doors to nation-killing mass migration invasion of poorly vetted third-worlders."
I often listen to French radio and it's deeply disturbing to hear so many French people who believe that there is a bottomless pit of money out there to pay for their never-ending demands. I loathe Macron but he was on the right track when he tried to get the French to work till at least 64 to pay for all their cradle to grave goodies. However, even that modest effort has been struck down. The spoilt, pampered people of the West have no idea what is coming their way.
The retirement age in my country is now 67. No government pension till then. We are all actually in encouraged and in a sense forced to fund our own retirement but lots of people don’t.
It’s a problem in the USA as well . However , corporations were able to navigate the demographic shift and are mostly fully funded . The public pensions could give a schitt and kept boosting their pensions . Chicago pensions are only 20% funded yet just increased payout 6% . How can they do that ? They don’t care . We are the “ bailout Nation “ . Since 2008 we just print money to solve any problem ..38 Trillion in debt now
No one ever talks about the easiest and most likely solution to the western world's pension problem - don't pay. This is what people who owe money they can't pay back have been doing for thousands of years. And by not paying, I mean, give them 80 cents on the dollar, depending on how bad the problem is. Of course the pensioners won't like it, but something like a debt crises will sharpen the focus and the hard decision will be made. This is what the city of Detroit did in bankruptcy recently and they virtually wiped out their pension debt, while still paying, albeit reduced, pensions.
My father here in Germany got (and still gets) 80% of his salary as a pension. I will get 48% of it - and they talk about reducing it further. Still the goverment adds money. When the pensin will get lower, more people will fall into the social security system, which is paid completely by the state.
My parents Social Security was a much higher percentage, and they invested ALL of it and lived on their pensions and investments.Every generation has a different experience with what they spend their lives working for.
Yup, the recklessness states (all of them with very few exception) are expanding government spending is breathtaking, Biden/Harris was particularly bad but the US BBB isn't much different, DOGE only making tiny dent in the curve. So it's clearly intentional destruction of fiat currencies, no other interpretation possible. To provoke the big crash no doubt where assets can be picked up for pennies to the $ by the Rothschild & Co. string-pullers in best family tradition. Add in a little war here and there to heat things up, remove a few million humans from the planet and to facilitate rearranging the spoils.
Really, if the great floods come again, we've deserved it.
Connecticut has the highest pension debt per capita @ $24k - then New Jersey @ $21k. Up until 1981, CT had no state income tax. Then Gov. Weicker passed a tax and it’s been spend, spend, spend by Democrats ever since. It’s criminal.
FFS! Giving up and resigning oneself to misery is not an adult solution to these programs. Obviously.
So, show some courage (I say this to the Europeans broadly), think, and start making something happen.
It is silly to think this is only a political question, and thus only politicians will solve it.
Each of you are responsible for helping uncover a solution(s) and way(s) to get there.
First, starting stopping one or two utterly stupid things. Some candidates: (A) the climatism insanity (even small steps get the ball rolling), (b) wokeism, (c) the immigration crisis, and obviously letting in spongers. Etc. Etc.
The best way is to build an innovation society and start growing the economy. So, deregulation, enable small start-ups, and start innovating. You have some budding Musk-like people. Find them, build them, encourage more.
For sure, a lot of crying and hand-wringing and a big pity-party will not help! Party like it’s 1989!!
What Trump & co are doing is a source of some ideas. Milei too. Some things in parts of Britain, and how they innovate financially.
Yes, I agree! I was about to post the same observation as your. That is one of Eugyppius' many very perceptive remarks and one which I plan to quote repeatedly.
I think this is the west, not just Germany. And it is not solvable through any government practices on tap today or practiced in the past. Growing our way out of the spending is not working. Allocating taxes and pension funds to favored government projects is not working. Anywhere. The law of unintended consequences which governs our bureaucrats guarantees the lack of results. Government spending (called investment so we can't criticize) is effectively crowding out the private sector investment. There are diminishing returns on each tranche of government spending (investment) which in turn generates the requirements for additional spending (investment) to achieve anything closely resembling a trend, which looks ever less remotely capable of ever achieving the promises made to the public. We can't stop the spending without causing the public severe pain. As Lyn Alden, a very good source for why and how this is true, is fond of saying, this is why nothing stops this train. We are a ways off from that moment of rupture, but given our collective western governments one can expect that risk to accelerate. Not diminish. So have a seat, relax in the dining car with your arm around a loved one. Listen to the music and enjoy your favorite drink. Ignore that unrepaired track on the curve ahead. Smile and wait. Then embrace the pain as we fly off track and everything shatters around us. Nothing can stop this from happening.
I think Alden said we will inflate it away . Hence gold and Bitcoin
Jeffrey Grundlach thinks we will simply “ restructure “ all government debt . It is ilegal but so was buying corporate bonds during Covid and “ modifying “ mortgages in 2008 .
Alden defines inflation as a vehicle which will be employed but the standard of living will not be maintained. This will lead to the replacement of the existing Fiat form of money with something more anchored in value as in Bitcoin. She does not portray gold as a form of money that will compete with Bitcoin in my reading. My point was that the ability to stop spending is as she points out a structural problem that is not debt related, ie cannot be inflated away as it has not yet occurred in its entirety. More will be spent as it is easier to do. Everything for free is a rallying cry in much of the west today. An example of what a Fiat rupture might look like is Argentina today whereas an example of the shift to Bitcoin to avoid a rupture might be El Salvador. both are examples of immediate and significant change we are not seeing elsewhere in the western world. Default on debt is always an option, but would still require stopping spending…that is what will be impossible.
Gold an silver are not getting more expensive, the money just looses value. Bitcoin and stocks get exaktly as much value as people trust into it. behind stocks there mabe real values or not - when the stock market crashes, you have no access to the real values.
Therefore trading and Bitcoins is just a kind of gambling.
Geez........bitcoin is a fiat currency - plain and simple. It has counter-party risks just like all fiat currencies. And, even before technology makes cracking the bitcoin cyrpto wide open, it is just credit. Oh, yes, much easier - just on your phone, but really people?????
We continue to welcome alternative-thinking Germans here in Austria, where things are a bit better on many levels.
Sunny Carinthia (in southern Austria) has the highest percentage of German citizens living there, over 5% in many areas. No death tax, no NATO, a healthier fiscal situation: Austria might benefit from this (as would Switzerland).
Also once enough people realize Bitcoin is the way out, there’s going to be a scramble to get loose from Germany and things might get really shaky in the next few years.
In Germany in the countryside living is also fine. If you go to East Germany, e.g. Thuringia you may get house starting from 20.000€ in not too bad shape. My son bought a farmhouse there with 200sqm for 40.000€. Roof, windows, everything okay, but single stoves in each room and a Grundofen beteeen kitchen and livin room. Erverything was inside, even furniture and a modern ktichen and nothing to repair.
I think Spittal an der Drau is a great area to live, and anywhere in Osttirol, if you’re working remotely or retired or otherwise self-sufficient. If you need to find a job in person, Wels in Upper Austria is a smaller city near bigger markets , and there are many organic farmers , alternative medical practitioners, and homeschoolers in the area.
Depends on the altitude and side of the Alps. Graz in the SE is above freezing most days and sunny. Bregenz in the far west gets very little snow but is cloudy. Krems by Vienna is protected and only gets about 10cm or 4in of snow in winter. But it’s gloomy there. Innsbruck has cold and sunny winters.
I try to keep myself positive:). We’re surrounded by a lot of great people on the Austrian countryside and I see us doing well in almost any scenario, especially because we can be food and heating self-sufficient.
We have a similar situation in Britain. Having paid public workers more than the private sector for decades with earlier retirement, more benefits, longer holidays etc they also get bigger pensions which are inflaition protected and guaranteed by the state. In the private sector such pensions are not available and instead they are personal pensions of the defined contribution type.
Private pension holders bear the risk of poor investment returns, annuity provider solvency and the costs and decision making necessary throughout the contributions and pension taking decades.
It appears the state is about to increase taxes on the rest of us so it can continue to provide these "gold plated" pensions to the state employees. Members of Parliament and some Councillors also get these type of pensions; inb the case of MPs their accrual rate is fourtieths compared with typically sixtieths of final salary in other state pensions.
It is thought the liability for promised pensions in the UYK is double the admitted national debt which is itself outrageously large and in the trillions of pounds.
We also have our insanely expensive civil servant pensions, on top of the increasingly catastrophic statutory pension scheme. One obvious small fix, that would nevertheless help enormously, would be herding all the civil servants into the ordinary pension programme. We can't do that because Germany is a state basically run by a civil servant elite.
In NY hordes of civil servants were eligible for their pensions after 20 years. They would then move to another state and begin another career as a civil servant, and become eligible for a second pension (or worse, go on permanent disability). Some were able to work it to retire in their 50s collecting two full pensions.
As long as Smeagle ('Merz' - what demon names - Merkel, Merz, Macron, Kallus -Oy Vey!) breathes and crawls, he will dream of the Golden Ring.
I want to know what can be done to free Reiner Fuellmich, Warrior against the Corporate Kakistocracy and Global Conspiracy INC. which has seized all power and treasure in The West.
He scored major victories against corporations which is why narco-state Mexico, under Sheinbaum, colluded with the new Stasi to kidnap him and throw him, Assange -style into its deepest crypto-Nazi dungeons.
Launch a widely spread petition on Citizen.go? 20 Million supporters is a good base. If we can motivate half i.e. 10 million to support the "Free Reiner" movement, someone or something will cave in. Locking people up after Kangaroo trials is a disgrace to any country.
Reiner, similar as Julian Assange certainly deserves full support of the global community
Do you mean the fund-raising thingy? I think they have tried to start one, mainly for his wife, Inka, as undestandably he and she are suffering the full brunt of the NEO NAZI German state to bankrupt and destroy them.
It's a classic tragedy of the commons. People relied on other people's children to support them in old age, and didn't have enough children to support themselves, now there aren't enough children to support everyone. Seems almost unavoidable with public pension systems, where there's no incentive to have more children to support you in your old age.
Everywhere in the west ,we have dropped below replacement ( 2 children ) . It a ticking time bomb . JD Vance and Tucker are shouting about it but ….people are shouting louder ..” You NAZI “ ..I’m a Nazi because I’m white and have a wife and 2 kids ? ..read the US papers sometimes to see what we are up against .
We've just lived through the most incredible period of economic growth and prosperity in human history. That kind of material comfort creates a certain mindset: why bother doing difficult things like having kids when you can buy a bigger house, get another car and above all, have a career? Our material wealth and Woke ideology has blinded us to the fact that surviving as a society and ultimately as an individual involves some unpleasant choices, including one that no self-respecting feminist today would agree with: women need to have kids.
100%. Today's world has gone fully materialistic, i.e. demonic, all spiritual connections gone, for most people at least. As long as this does not change the satanists will take over.
The only actual solution is to either eliminate the state pension for new entrants (and existing people who want out) and let people make their own arrangements. Even a modest contributor is throwing money away compared to what they could achieve investing what the government takes from them. And this is what makes it politically unsustainable. Even risk-averse Germans will eventually not accept a system that pays out only half of what you pay in, in nominal terms.
That still doesn't solve the already-extant problem that unless the brakes are slammed on right now, there is a huge fiscal black hole on the horizon, and one that will eventually have to be filled by reneging on pension promises. Either that or confiscating everything everyone owns to keep it going a few more years.
But Germany has multiple such existential crises all at once, pensions, migration (which has far from solving the pensions problem only brought it into focus), the insane energy policies, and various not-quite-there boondoggles like building energy efficiency, whose repeal was promised but this lame duck regime can't even achieve that.
It is terrifying to me that the SPD won't even vote to withdraw the Verbrenner-Aus, that and the GEG are the biggest near-term disasters, worth joining forces with the AfD all on their own and despite all the rioting that would entail.
Don't feel alone. The US system will run out of money in 2033 they claim. The suggestion is that Congress will have to cut benefits by 26%. One can only imagine how many in congress have the guts to vote for that.
In the 90 years of the system, they have raised the retirement age once to 67 from 65.
Our system was set up to be like a savings account, the employee, employer paid into it and the money made interest. In my own case I got all that money back by age 77. Next year I will have been on the public dole for 10 years and since I maxed out the required contribution my last eleven working years, I am getting a nice piece of change each month.
The current US administration knows they cannot change much about the entitlements, but they try make the economy hum, so maybe the USA can grwo itself out of the problem.
The German administration also knows they cannot change much about the entitlements, but they try to de-industrialize and shrink the economy.
A nice little experiment we have here: which startegy will be more succesful.
I don't see Trump trying to "make the economy hum", Andreas. Sure, I believe he genuinely wants to bring back manufacturing, but as time goes on, he's more and more into the standard US solution to economic woes: attacking and destabilising nations and taking over their natural resources. All the nations Trump is railing at right now - Venezuela, Nigeria, Iran, Russia - all have large natural resources.
I do not think they have much room to manouvre, even if he wanted. The debt and entitlements are dictatitng much of their economic policies.
But they hope (probably against hope) to grow faster than the US declines, at the same time changing geopolitics.
I also don't think they are really antagonistic against Russia or Iran or China. They are tring to find a new equilibrium.
Chinad and Russia are fortunately very rational. And also have their own problems.
In a word: the situation is desperate and probably unsolvable, but the current USA tries to move forward. Like a junkie making plans to try rehab. It will be hard. But there is a glimmer of hope.
In contrast Germany is trying to get more money to buy more drugs. Now lying and stealing from its friends for the next fix. Looking like those Fentanyl zombies on the streets.
Congress has sometimes borrowed from the Social Security trust fund to finance other government expenditures, contributing to the idea that the fund has been "raided."
When Congress borrows from the trust fund, it does so by issuing Treasury bonds, which are considered IOUs. Critics argue that this practice undermines the integrity of the trust fund because it doesn't translate to actual cash being available for Social Security benefits.
While the trust fund was meant to be a safeguard for Social Security benefits, policies and practices have led to significant borrowing, raising concerns about its long-term viability.
Plus, with me as the example, there is a huge actuarial problem with their calculations. Granted I live in SW Florida but the Obits in my local paper are full of people over 80 passing away every day so it can be assumed that they have all used up their contributions and are on the public dole.
Lucky you! In South Africa ours ran out at 70! Though I have to admit all the white civil servants had to take "packages" so we got very little to start with. So now it is welfare and our poor ever suffering children.
There is a huge problem with public pensions . As to social security , Medicare is a,ready “ means tested “ . They could do THAT . also boost the age to 70 . But you are probably right ..just add a few trillion to the 38 T ..does it matter ? 38v 42 trillion ? We have no intention of ever paying that money back .
I've always thought means-testing Social Security was a great idea, even a no-brainer. I've read about very wealthy people insisting on collecting their SS.
Agreed. If you read the history of the UK in the 1930s "means testing" was akin to clubbing baby seals. However, it is the only way to ensure that limited resources go to the right people.
Means testing would piss lots of people off, me included. I paid my dues and I want my money back. I could have done much better investing that money on my own, but was not allowed to.
But they don't even need to means test it. Just raise the contribution limit. Right now, every dollar earned over a certain amount ($176,100) is not taxed. They should do away with that
Go to zero based budgeting to get the fiscal back in order. Cut for starters all incoming non applied for immigration. Poland is thru with it, why isn't Germany? Oh, and dump the EU and negotiate the division of Ukraine or leave the albatross called NATO.
We sure didn't realize what a brief little ephemeral paradise most of us in the West had beginning in the '50s. I've never wanted to actually *know* what the collapse of Rome felt like to the ordinary person but we just never get to escape history coming around again.
I bet I speak for HS grads everywhere wearying unto death of what all the smart people keep doing to us.
Horrible depressing piece you've written here truly because it covers all our countries in the big picture though our details may vary. I suppose it's a good thing that the vax killed my UK friend so she wouldn't be left to freeze to death every winter with what the budget geniuses over there are doing.
One never hears about the freezing pensioners it the UK anymore, but it must be getting worse under the current government and the continued Net Zero insanity. But British pensioners have this very strange mentality that they couldn't possibly complain and they suffer in silence.
Hey, it could be worse. Multiply your debt numbers by about a thousand and you have the US scenario. Our pension system, called Social Security, has always been an unsustainable pyramid scheme and any attempt at even the slightest reform was met with charges of "wanting to push grandma off a cliff." The bill is coming due, and the only way out is a national bankruptcy. But not before more comical spending, inflation, instability, finger pointing, and huge swings between Trump and then AOC (who is going to win in 2028 you heard it here first). The only suspense will be to see who is the one in office when the whole house of cards comes tumbling down, and takes the blame for something they played only a minuscule part in.
Oh you don't have to remind me! I moved out of California in part because it was on the hook for a trillion dollars in unfunded bonds and pension liabilities, The timing of their financial collapse will be interesting. If it happened tomorrow they would be in trouble. If it happens with a Democrat in the White House they will simply be bailed out.
Boomers are already dying off in record numbers, so the crisis should begin to abate in 10 years or so. At one point I wondered if the p(l)andemic was part of an evil plan to accelerate the process. But who would be that callous? Oh, wait . . . China's government and the governments of just about every so-called 'democracy' on Earth. Maybe the Canadian solution (assisted suicide) is actually one of the more humane solutions to the aging population problem.
I am pretty sure as boomers my husband and I were supposed to die! Unfortunately all our children and grandchildren got sick and we not even a sniffle!
Seems to me that our immune systems are a lot more robust than the biowarfare researchers were hoping, and their designer viruses evolved faster than they anticipated, as well. I wonder if the mass vaccination with mRNA agents was intended as research, or even to 'solve' that problem.
That’s not even true. We are very healthy and hope to live long lives. We don’t get a cent of state money. Our retirement is self funded. Don’’t retired Americans get $1000 a month from the government regardless?
The Americans we travel with on cruises in Europe have so much money.
"Democratic socialists". I was working with my students on literary techniques today. Oxymorons came up. If that isn't a perfect oxymoron, I don't know what is.
Sadly, this is a problem with a built-in solution: the poorer pensioners will die off all that quicker, and after about 15 years of that the system will have stabilised to a new equilibrium.
The exact same thing happened during the rapid switch-over from agrarian and dispersed populations to urbanised industrialised cities; without the safety-net of the large family, the men and women broken and ground down by the gristmills of capitalism quickly died once they were no longer productive enough to support themselves.
It is the same solution as infertility/below replacement levels of childbirths: it will reach a sustainable equilibrium.
If politicians stop tampering.
Which doesn't mean people should be left to suffer of course.
But also, if /you/ cannot pay for a servant to care for you in your own home when you reach that age, is it right to still live in your own private home supported by tax-funded servants?
Or is it simply a fact of economics that the best solution is institutions, where the cost/value-ratio for buildings, staff, logistics and so on can be optimised and thus taxes kept lower?
We know the Marxist solution and the capitalist solution: they are one and the same, only differing in semantics and optics.
Perhaps one dare suggest the nationalist solution instead?
To treat one's fellow members of The People - Das Volk! - as an extension of one's family.
This isn't unique to Germany since it's a feature of countries that experienced the baby booner population bubble. The situation in France with its lower retirement age is arguably worse.
The widespread notion in Europe that it was necessary to import a new population to support the ageing original one was to have been a panacea which in practice has led to yet more lips pressed to the shrivelled national teat with all the attendant diversity joy.
Yes of course, France is somewhat ahead of us on the timeline, also their fiscal situation is worse. This may make our politicians feel better but in absolute terms it doesn't make the crisis any less bad.
I suspect it will take something rather more substantial than Macron for hapless Starmer and hopeless Merz to feel better about their own impending political doom. I certainly hope that's the case!
I don't think Merz or Starmer feel very bad when they have to go. The know they are just filling the seat (and their pockets) for a few years, but don't have any intetnion or vision to make any changes.
Their brief is: kick the can down the road.
Probably they hope that in the next few years we will have a very efficient surveilance state, unlimited money printing of the digital euro, and some form of UBI.
This will keep most citizen very silent.
This way the state may survive for many more decades, and maybe they can even keep their leading roles.
They all dream of somehow getting their hands on all those Russian natural resources which with a fragmented State they can plunder to support their dying economies. The reason for the never ending war and attempts at rearming.
Of course it's never going to happen so a sad decline into almost fuedal prison states is the only future.
We Swiss just voted for digital IDs. Maybe we're all too stupid to survive. The future, if there is one, definitely seems to be Eastwards.
What? That's crazy.
I always thought the Swiss were more sensible
Switzerland also embraced the Corona regime without much force from above. There really isn't any need for basic democratic participation if the folk just wants all the things that would be imposed on them from the ruling elite otherwise.
In this sense Lauterbach was quite right when he stated that nobody would be forced to take the vaccine. They will always make you to do it voluntarily and comply, no matter what.
Do you really think that they are capable of thinking that far ahead?
I think the system they created "thinks" that way. Like a cancer"thinks" to grow and overtake everthing.
How is that to happen? Seriously, just keep printing money and everything is going to be Ok. Fiat money (actually credit since there is always a counter-party risk) is sinking rapidly. Central banks are diversifying to gold (and some silver) and away from fiat currencies including the US$, EU, British Pound. EU will not survive the coming collapse no matter how many fresh fiat currencies their conger out of thin air. Wake up and smell the coffee.....the reign of fiat is rapidly approaching and it is going to be horrific.
I agree except for "rapifly". it is inevitable, but not necessaryy immanent.
Rome's fall took 200 years. (And can be very well traced by examining their steadily degrading coinage)
That is not to say that it takes necessary 200 years for us. Only that the outcome is certain, but not the timeframe.
The warnings here are unavoidable. Get your money out of paper!
Again
> import a new population to support the ageing original one ...
To me a cover story only. The large majority of uncontrolled immigrants are fighting age young islamic males who will never integrate, let alone pay taxes; to draw Europe into disorder and chaos as soon as possible, suppressing Europe largely Christian historic roots, and yes France is certainly clearly ahead of Germany in this respect also with the north African former colonies background.
As always it's not plain black and white but definitely a clear pattern.
Implemented by Merkel, a WEF/NWO minion.
Former immigration waves into Germany (Italians, Turks,.) were different. Many families coming to Germany and virtually no knife-wielding religious lunatics making Germany an increasingly dangerous place to live
The Mexican illegal immigrants in California come here for free health care ,free food ,free education and free housing . A few work with phony social security cards so that helps a little but it is dwarfed by their consumption of public assistance.
The only test needed to assess potential immigrants is the state of the nation their people built. Mexico, Brazil and Guatemala speak for themselves. As does Switzerland or Sweden. We are being destroyed by this nonsense. It baffles me anyone accepts it.
Many people believe all humans share the same values. They will attribute these nations' backwards and chaotic state to lack of money, whereas the truth is that their lack of money is due to their current backwards, chaotic state.
The progressives believe everyone is the same .
They believe in “ equity “ . Equal outcomes.
You know just like all the wealth in USSR and now China is distributed equally among the people .
“ Some pigs are more equal than others “,..animal farm
Actually, they don't believe that everyone is the same. They believe that everyone no-christian is superior to christians.
Yes. Astonishing naivety. Dangerous too as Europe and America are now finding out. And some demographics are truly lethal. Soft times and all that.
It has a name: suicidal empathy
That’s why we voted Trump in. We actually offer illegal immigrants a plane trip home, along with $1000, and a chance to come back legally within 10 years. It’s much easier and less expensive than the ICE detention and ride, and the crowds insisting they need habeas, throw rocks, blocking cars corpus(They have all had due process at the immigration courts. )The problem is not the people. It’s the 20M let in with Biden not on the job.
Plus legal immigration on top. It is this that will sink the West, not boat people.
That’s a continuing debate, subject to change.
Well JD Vance and Tucker Carlson don’t accept it . Of course , in the eyes of the progressives both are ..you guessed it ..Nazi’s .
Tucker is funny in that before he says anything he prefaces it with “ they’ll call me a racist Nazi …but ..” I think those words are losing their sting here now . We’ll see .
I am not aware of either being particularly against immigration or in favour of their own people. Carlson is quite hostile to aspects of the pushback.
Yet another proof of organized state crime by a captured govt - "broken social contracts" a nice way of putting it. The parallel execution of destabilisation by uncontrolled mass immigration is more than evident.
"President of the CBSA union REVEALS that Canada lets in refugees via AN APP on their phone due to understaffing.
"
No physical interaction EVER occurs. They land and click a few buttons and walk INTO CANADA and get MONEY! .... 10% don’t even USE THE APP!"
https://x.com/Tablesalt13/status/1991173940878741861
My feeling is you are right. Where do I find data that backs yr statements up??
What provinces walk into Canada 🇨🇦 that way? Or is it all? I have relatives in Quebec.
We once stood around a Christmas Market fire, inhaling brawts and Gluhwein when a German man explained each small German village has a butcher, a bakery, a Pub and a church. Merkel expected them each to be saved, when she opened the German borders.
Unfortunately most new arrivals do not consume pork, long a German butcher focus, nor do they visit Pubs or churches, so Angela destroyed the German economic miracle and the enviable German safety net, to save a bunch of bakeries, as the village dies around them. It was an interesting take on current Germany.
to wit:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/increasingly-becoming-no-go-areas-violent-crime-explodes-german-train-stations
The immigration problem is racial. As if the statistically even more murderous and low-IQ sub-saharans were any better for being 'Christian'. And Hindus rape at the same rate as Muslims. I understand that Whites are only allowed to be xenophobic when it's politically convenient for our overlords, the jews: but problems must be correctly and courageously identified before they can be solved.
No overlords here to change what I think.
re: fighting age young (islamic) males
Concerned Citizen
🇬🇧 In the middle of the night, Bus loads of migrants dropped off at their new luxury hotel, all clutching envelopes and dressed like uniformed Military Personnel.
All Military fighting age Men.
This is so deeply sinister it’s unreal.
https://x.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1991586232451858495
The migrants in Germany are mostly from Muslim states, who have traditional values. I wonder, if the social security system breaksdown and they have to earn their living, if they will return to a more conservative lifestyle and family structures.
The problem is, those "traditional" values are wholly antithetical to those that built and nurtured the West, the greatest civilization in history.
I was with you until the last un-necessary and incorrect phrase ...'the greatest civilization in history.' You have obviously not studied anything outside of Western civilisation.
That's where you're wrong. I studied Asian history at university, and have an interest in pre-Columbian societies in Central and South America.
Nobody else accomplished anything near what the West has. Just look around you. Modern industrial society was built by the West. The highest accomplishments in the arts, philosophy, science, technology, etc. by far are the West's.
...and also finance of course. The main focus of the West's achievements being on materialism, and excellency in inventing implements of destruction, aka arms. All of which is now becoming the Wests undoing.
Examples please ....
I'd rather not get into that discussion here; it's not quite relevant to the topic of the post. If you're interested you can study the history of the WORLD, yourself and think about it.
They may come to the USA! They are trying to take over Texas with 300 mosques in one year. The governor is working to limit the number of mosques. Minnesota has become an Islamic state. The new mayor in NYC wants to globalize the intifada, in addition to running the city on Marxist philosophy.
Germany intentionally bankrupted by sky high energy cost (great way to destroy any heavy industry but also means last place in the AI race), the pension issue and the cost of uncontrolled mass immigration. Well done. Only silver lining is that Brussels will collapse next now that it's up to France and Italy to finance the non-elected totalitarian war-mongering and big pharma mafia colluding gang with their tax free salaries. Good luck with that.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/almost-every-german-city-now-verge-bankruptcy
Some seem to be waking up in face of reality hitting controlled wokeness. Point of return probably long passed in the targeted countries and regions.
A consolation is destruction won't happen overnight. The Roman empire took 200 years until it finally disintegrated. Quite a few accelleration boosters around this time though.
The tragedy is this undoes decades if not centuries of immigration waves of people leaving their home countries, desperate to find jobs and make a living and peacefully integrating into their new environment.
"The surge of nationalism across the West is a direct response against unhinged globalist leaders whose suicidal empathy opened the doors to nation-killing mass migration invasion of poorly vetted third-worlders."
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/state-department-sounds-alarm-mass-migration-existential-threat-western-civilization
I often listen to French radio and it's deeply disturbing to hear so many French people who believe that there is a bottomless pit of money out there to pay for their never-ending demands. I loathe Macron but he was on the right track when he tried to get the French to work till at least 64 to pay for all their cradle to grave goodies. However, even that modest effort has been struck down. The spoilt, pampered people of the West have no idea what is coming their way.
The retirement age in my country is now 67. No government pension till then. We are all actually in encouraged and in a sense forced to fund our own retirement but lots of people don’t.
That started in the USA with the ERISA act in 1976. It was not easy, but necessary.
In time, they might need to liquidate the Louver treasures.
Before they get stolen.
That's a big BOOM! and funny too.
The French are a special kind of spoiled brat. Meantime the Germans are expected to work in 67
The age is now 68 in the US, but at 70 the monthly benefit is higher.
It’s a problem in the USA as well . However , corporations were able to navigate the demographic shift and are mostly fully funded . The public pensions could give a schitt and kept boosting their pensions . Chicago pensions are only 20% funded yet just increased payout 6% . How can they do that ? They don’t care . We are the “ bailout Nation “ . Since 2008 we just print money to solve any problem ..38 Trillion in debt now
No one ever talks about the easiest and most likely solution to the western world's pension problem - don't pay. This is what people who owe money they can't pay back have been doing for thousands of years. And by not paying, I mean, give them 80 cents on the dollar, depending on how bad the problem is. Of course the pensioners won't like it, but something like a debt crises will sharpen the focus and the hard decision will be made. This is what the city of Detroit did in bankruptcy recently and they virtually wiped out their pension debt, while still paying, albeit reduced, pensions.
My father here in Germany got (and still gets) 80% of his salary as a pension. I will get 48% of it - and they talk about reducing it further. Still the goverment adds money. When the pensin will get lower, more people will fall into the social security system, which is paid completely by the state.
My parents Social Security was a much higher percentage, and they invested ALL of it and lived on their pensions and investments.Every generation has a different experience with what they spend their lives working for.
Yes good point . That’s what many corporate pensions did in the 80’s before they all switch to 401K . Hey 80% is still something
They also offer stock options in lieu of pensions.
And the city workers will still receives Social Security if they paid into it, albeit reduced.
Yup, the recklessness states (all of them with very few exception) are expanding government spending is breathtaking, Biden/Harris was particularly bad but the US BBB isn't much different, DOGE only making tiny dent in the curve. So it's clearly intentional destruction of fiat currencies, no other interpretation possible. To provoke the big crash no doubt where assets can be picked up for pennies to the $ by the Rothschild & Co. string-pullers in best family tradition. Add in a little war here and there to heat things up, remove a few million humans from the planet and to facilitate rearranging the spoils.
Really, if the great floods come again, we've deserved it.
I can’t think of the exception. Who are they?
Switzerland,, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Norway, Singapore.
Until captured by Rothschild / Blackrock & Co: Germany
Connecticut has the highest pension debt per capita @ $24k - then New Jersey @ $21k. Up until 1981, CT had no state income tax. Then Gov. Weicker passed a tax and it’s been spend, spend, spend by Democrats ever since. It’s criminal.
Not asking for inflation anymore.
FFS! Giving up and resigning oneself to misery is not an adult solution to these programs. Obviously.
So, show some courage (I say this to the Europeans broadly), think, and start making something happen.
It is silly to think this is only a political question, and thus only politicians will solve it.
Each of you are responsible for helping uncover a solution(s) and way(s) to get there.
First, starting stopping one or two utterly stupid things. Some candidates: (A) the climatism insanity (even small steps get the ball rolling), (b) wokeism, (c) the immigration crisis, and obviously letting in spongers. Etc. Etc.
The best way is to build an innovation society and start growing the economy. So, deregulation, enable small start-ups, and start innovating. You have some budding Musk-like people. Find them, build them, encourage more.
For sure, a lot of crying and hand-wringing and a big pity-party will not help! Party like it’s 1989!!
What Trump & co are doing is a source of some ideas. Milei too. Some things in parts of Britain, and how they innovate financially.
"The worst crises are the boring ones, which in their banality cede the stage to a rotating cast of insignificant passing hysterias."
Thank you for one of the finest, dryest, and most insightful lines of 2025.
I noted that too. A perfect encapsulation of modern societies and what they are facing.
I liked the line about the shriveled test. Quite apt.
Yes, I agree! I was about to post the same observation as your. That is one of Eugyppius' many very perceptive remarks and one which I plan to quote repeatedly.
I think this is the west, not just Germany. And it is not solvable through any government practices on tap today or practiced in the past. Growing our way out of the spending is not working. Allocating taxes and pension funds to favored government projects is not working. Anywhere. The law of unintended consequences which governs our bureaucrats guarantees the lack of results. Government spending (called investment so we can't criticize) is effectively crowding out the private sector investment. There are diminishing returns on each tranche of government spending (investment) which in turn generates the requirements for additional spending (investment) to achieve anything closely resembling a trend, which looks ever less remotely capable of ever achieving the promises made to the public. We can't stop the spending without causing the public severe pain. As Lyn Alden, a very good source for why and how this is true, is fond of saying, this is why nothing stops this train. We are a ways off from that moment of rupture, but given our collective western governments one can expect that risk to accelerate. Not diminish. So have a seat, relax in the dining car with your arm around a loved one. Listen to the music and enjoy your favorite drink. Ignore that unrepaired track on the curve ahead. Smile and wait. Then embrace the pain as we fly off track and everything shatters around us. Nothing can stop this from happening.
I think Alden said we will inflate it away . Hence gold and Bitcoin
Jeffrey Grundlach thinks we will simply “ restructure “ all government debt . It is ilegal but so was buying corporate bonds during Covid and “ modifying “ mortgages in 2008 .
Alden defines inflation as a vehicle which will be employed but the standard of living will not be maintained. This will lead to the replacement of the existing Fiat form of money with something more anchored in value as in Bitcoin. She does not portray gold as a form of money that will compete with Bitcoin in my reading. My point was that the ability to stop spending is as she points out a structural problem that is not debt related, ie cannot be inflated away as it has not yet occurred in its entirety. More will be spent as it is easier to do. Everything for free is a rallying cry in much of the west today. An example of what a Fiat rupture might look like is Argentina today whereas an example of the shift to Bitcoin to avoid a rupture might be El Salvador. both are examples of immediate and significant change we are not seeing elsewhere in the western world. Default on debt is always an option, but would still require stopping spending…that is what will be impossible.
Gold an silver are not getting more expensive, the money just looses value. Bitcoin and stocks get exaktly as much value as people trust into it. behind stocks there mabe real values or not - when the stock market crashes, you have no access to the real values.
Therefore trading and Bitcoins is just a kind of gambling.
Geez........bitcoin is a fiat currency - plain and simple. It has counter-party risks just like all fiat currencies. And, even before technology makes cracking the bitcoin cyrpto wide open, it is just credit. Oh, yes, much easier - just on your phone, but really people?????
We continue to welcome alternative-thinking Germans here in Austria, where things are a bit better on many levels.
Sunny Carinthia (in southern Austria) has the highest percentage of German citizens living there, over 5% in many areas. No death tax, no NATO, a healthier fiscal situation: Austria might benefit from this (as would Switzerland).
Also once enough people realize Bitcoin is the way out, there’s going to be a scramble to get loose from Germany and things might get really shaky in the next few years.
In Germany in the countryside living is also fine. If you go to East Germany, e.g. Thuringia you may get house starting from 20.000€ in not too bad shape. My son bought a farmhouse there with 200sqm for 40.000€. Roof, windows, everything okay, but single stoves in each room and a Grundofen beteeen kitchen and livin room. Erverything was inside, even furniture and a modern ktichen and nothing to repair.
Please tell me which area to search for at Immoscout.
I think Spittal an der Drau is a great area to live, and anywhere in Osttirol, if you’re working remotely or retired or otherwise self-sufficient. If you need to find a job in person, Wels in Upper Austria is a smaller city near bigger markets , and there are many organic farmers , alternative medical practitioners, and homeschoolers in the area.
Sounds heavenly. What are the winters like?
Depends on the altitude and side of the Alps. Graz in the SE is above freezing most days and sunny. Bregenz in the far west gets very little snow but is cloudy. Krems by Vienna is protected and only gets about 10cm or 4in of snow in winter. But it’s gloomy there. Innsbruck has cold and sunny winters.
Thank you!
Cold and snowy. Learn to ski!
> where things are a bit better on many levels...
You are clearly not following Gerald Markel's TG channel (t.me/gema1963).
Probably better not to..
I try to keep myself positive:). We’re surrounded by a lot of great people on the Austrian countryside and I see us doing well in almost any scenario, especially because we can be food and heating self-sufficient.
No I’ll check it out though
We have a similar situation in Britain. Having paid public workers more than the private sector for decades with earlier retirement, more benefits, longer holidays etc they also get bigger pensions which are inflaition protected and guaranteed by the state. In the private sector such pensions are not available and instead they are personal pensions of the defined contribution type.
Private pension holders bear the risk of poor investment returns, annuity provider solvency and the costs and decision making necessary throughout the contributions and pension taking decades.
It appears the state is about to increase taxes on the rest of us so it can continue to provide these "gold plated" pensions to the state employees. Members of Parliament and some Councillors also get these type of pensions; inb the case of MPs their accrual rate is fourtieths compared with typically sixtieths of final salary in other state pensions.
It is thought the liability for promised pensions in the UYK is double the admitted national debt which is itself outrageously large and in the trillions of pounds.
We also have our insanely expensive civil servant pensions, on top of the increasingly catastrophic statutory pension scheme. One obvious small fix, that would nevertheless help enormously, would be herding all the civil servants into the ordinary pension programme. We can't do that because Germany is a state basically run by a civil servant elite.
On all political annimal farms, goverment workers are more equal so there will be no downgrading to equality.
Dang, I just suggested that in another comment.
In NY hordes of civil servants were eligible for their pensions after 20 years. They would then move to another state and begin another career as a civil servant, and become eligible for a second pension (or worse, go on permanent disability). Some were able to work it to retire in their 50s collecting two full pensions.
As long as Smeagle ('Merz' - what demon names - Merkel, Merz, Macron, Kallus -Oy Vey!) breathes and crawls, he will dream of the Golden Ring.
I want to know what can be done to free Reiner Fuellmich, Warrior against the Corporate Kakistocracy and Global Conspiracy INC. which has seized all power and treasure in The West.
He scored major victories against corporations which is why narco-state Mexico, under Sheinbaum, colluded with the new Stasi to kidnap him and throw him, Assange -style into its deepest crypto-Nazi dungeons.
Launch a widely spread petition on Citizen.go? 20 Million supporters is a good base. If we can motivate half i.e. 10 million to support the "Free Reiner" movement, someone or something will cave in. Locking people up after Kangaroo trials is a disgrace to any country.
Reiner, similar as Julian Assange certainly deserves full support of the global community
Do you mean the fund-raising thingy? I think they have tried to start one, mainly for his wife, Inka, as undestandably he and she are suffering the full brunt of the NEO NAZI German state to bankrupt and destroy them.
It's a classic tragedy of the commons. People relied on other people's children to support them in old age, and didn't have enough children to support themselves, now there aren't enough children to support everyone. Seems almost unavoidable with public pension systems, where there's no incentive to have more children to support you in your old age.
Everywhere in the west ,we have dropped below replacement ( 2 children ) . It a ticking time bomb . JD Vance and Tucker are shouting about it but ….people are shouting louder ..” You NAZI “ ..I’m a Nazi because I’m white and have a wife and 2 kids ? ..read the US papers sometimes to see what we are up against .
85% of women 19-30 voted for Mandami .
Make the pensions proportional to child earnings. Would probably make some parents care more about their kids
Ingenious.
We've just lived through the most incredible period of economic growth and prosperity in human history. That kind of material comfort creates a certain mindset: why bother doing difficult things like having kids when you can buy a bigger house, get another car and above all, have a career? Our material wealth and Woke ideology has blinded us to the fact that surviving as a society and ultimately as an individual involves some unpleasant choices, including one that no self-respecting feminist today would agree with: women need to have kids.
100%. Today's world has gone fully materialistic, i.e. demonic, all spiritual connections gone, for most people at least. As long as this does not change the satanists will take over.
The only actual solution is to either eliminate the state pension for new entrants (and existing people who want out) and let people make their own arrangements. Even a modest contributor is throwing money away compared to what they could achieve investing what the government takes from them. And this is what makes it politically unsustainable. Even risk-averse Germans will eventually not accept a system that pays out only half of what you pay in, in nominal terms.
That still doesn't solve the already-extant problem that unless the brakes are slammed on right now, there is a huge fiscal black hole on the horizon, and one that will eventually have to be filled by reneging on pension promises. Either that or confiscating everything everyone owns to keep it going a few more years.
But Germany has multiple such existential crises all at once, pensions, migration (which has far from solving the pensions problem only brought it into focus), the insane energy policies, and various not-quite-there boondoggles like building energy efficiency, whose repeal was promised but this lame duck regime can't even achieve that.
It is terrifying to me that the SPD won't even vote to withdraw the Verbrenner-Aus, that and the GEG are the biggest near-term disasters, worth joining forces with the AfD all on their own and despite all the rioting that would entail.
Brownshirt? KPD more like.
Also agreed. Most people are dum dums.
Don't feel alone. The US system will run out of money in 2033 they claim. The suggestion is that Congress will have to cut benefits by 26%. One can only imagine how many in congress have the guts to vote for that.
In the 90 years of the system, they have raised the retirement age once to 67 from 65.
Our system was set up to be like a savings account, the employee, employer paid into it and the money made interest. In my own case I got all that money back by age 77. Next year I will have been on the public dole for 10 years and since I maxed out the required contribution my last eleven working years, I am getting a nice piece of change each month.
The current US administration knows they cannot change much about the entitlements, but they try make the economy hum, so maybe the USA can grwo itself out of the problem.
The German administration also knows they cannot change much about the entitlements, but they try to de-industrialize and shrink the economy.
A nice little experiment we have here: which startegy will be more succesful.
I am long US and short Germany (Euro)
I don't see Trump trying to "make the economy hum", Andreas. Sure, I believe he genuinely wants to bring back manufacturing, but as time goes on, he's more and more into the standard US solution to economic woes: attacking and destabilising nations and taking over their natural resources. All the nations Trump is railing at right now - Venezuela, Nigeria, Iran, Russia - all have large natural resources.
I do not think they have much room to manouvre, even if he wanted. The debt and entitlements are dictatitng much of their economic policies.
But they hope (probably against hope) to grow faster than the US declines, at the same time changing geopolitics.
I also don't think they are really antagonistic against Russia or Iran or China. They are tring to find a new equilibrium.
Chinad and Russia are fortunately very rational. And also have their own problems.
In a word: the situation is desperate and probably unsolvable, but the current USA tries to move forward. Like a junkie making plans to try rehab. It will be hard. But there is a glimmer of hope.
In contrast Germany is trying to get more money to buy more drugs. Now lying and stealing from its friends for the next fix. Looking like those Fentanyl zombies on the streets.
But hasn't the SS trust fund been raided by Congress more than once?
Trust fund? There's no such thing. It's Ponzi. Always was.
What is there to raid? Social Security Trust Fund holds only US debt
Correct, because Congress raided it and filled it with IOUs.
That's the point.
Congress has sometimes borrowed from the Social Security trust fund to finance other government expenditures, contributing to the idea that the fund has been "raided."
When Congress borrows from the trust fund, it does so by issuing Treasury bonds, which are considered IOUs. Critics argue that this practice undermines the integrity of the trust fund because it doesn't translate to actual cash being available for Social Security benefits.
While the trust fund was meant to be a safeguard for Social Security benefits, policies and practices have led to significant borrowing, raising concerns about its long-term viability.
Plus, with me as the example, there is a huge actuarial problem with their calculations. Granted I live in SW Florida but the Obits in my local paper are full of people over 80 passing away every day so it can be assumed that they have all used up their contributions and are on the public dole.
Lucky you! In South Africa ours ran out at 70! Though I have to admit all the white civil servants had to take "packages" so we got very little to start with. So now it is welfare and our poor ever suffering children.
There is a huge problem with public pensions . As to social security , Medicare is a,ready “ means tested “ . They could do THAT . also boost the age to 70 . But you are probably right ..just add a few trillion to the 38 T ..does it matter ? 38v 42 trillion ? We have no intention of ever paying that money back .
I've always thought means-testing Social Security was a great idea, even a no-brainer. I've read about very wealthy people insisting on collecting their SS.
Agreed. If you read the history of the UK in the 1930s "means testing" was akin to clubbing baby seals. However, it is the only way to ensure that limited resources go to the right people.
If so, Social Security becomes a welfare program not an entitlement as was originally intended…
Good point.
Means testing would piss lots of people off, me included. I paid my dues and I want my money back. I could have done much better investing that money on my own, but was not allowed to.
But they don't even need to means test it. Just raise the contribution limit. Right now, every dollar earned over a certain amount ($176,100) is not taxed. They should do away with that
That's a point too.
Go to zero based budgeting to get the fiscal back in order. Cut for starters all incoming non applied for immigration. Poland is thru with it, why isn't Germany? Oh, and dump the EU and negotiate the division of Ukraine or leave the albatross called NATO.
Excellent solution. Except that it's politically impossible.
It will probably remain politically impossible right up until the moment when it's politically unavoidable.
We sure didn't realize what a brief little ephemeral paradise most of us in the West had beginning in the '50s. I've never wanted to actually *know* what the collapse of Rome felt like to the ordinary person but we just never get to escape history coming around again.
I bet I speak for HS grads everywhere wearying unto death of what all the smart people keep doing to us.
Horrible depressing piece you've written here truly because it covers all our countries in the big picture though our details may vary. I suppose it's a good thing that the vax killed my UK friend so she wouldn't be left to freeze to death every winter with what the budget geniuses over there are doing.
One never hears about the freezing pensioners it the UK anymore, but it must be getting worse under the current government and the continued Net Zero insanity. But British pensioners have this very strange mentality that they couldn't possibly complain and they suffer in silence.
Hey, it could be worse. Multiply your debt numbers by about a thousand and you have the US scenario. Our pension system, called Social Security, has always been an unsustainable pyramid scheme and any attempt at even the slightest reform was met with charges of "wanting to push grandma off a cliff." The bill is coming due, and the only way out is a national bankruptcy. But not before more comical spending, inflation, instability, finger pointing, and huge swings between Trump and then AOC (who is going to win in 2028 you heard it here first). The only suspense will be to see who is the one in office when the whole house of cards comes tumbling down, and takes the blame for something they played only a minuscule part in.
Don’t forget the massive underfunding of state and local pensions .
As expected private corporate pensions are in fine shape since they are responsible not only to employees but to shareholders as well .
Oh you don't have to remind me! I moved out of California in part because it was on the hook for a trillion dollars in unfunded bonds and pension liabilities, The timing of their financial collapse will be interesting. If it happened tomorrow they would be in trouble. If it happens with a Democrat in the White House they will simply be bailed out.
Boomergeddon intensifies
Boomers are already dying off in record numbers, so the crisis should begin to abate in 10 years or so. At one point I wondered if the p(l)andemic was part of an evil plan to accelerate the process. But who would be that callous? Oh, wait . . . China's government and the governments of just about every so-called 'democracy' on Earth. Maybe the Canadian solution (assisted suicide) is actually one of the more humane solutions to the aging population problem.
I am pretty sure as boomers my husband and I were supposed to die! Unfortunately all our children and grandchildren got sick and we not even a sniffle!
Seems to me that our immune systems are a lot more robust than the biowarfare researchers were hoping, and their designer viruses evolved faster than they anticipated, as well. I wonder if the mass vaccination with mRNA agents was intended as research, or even to 'solve' that problem.
Vastly fewer childhood immunizations may have played a part in robust immune systems.
Our immune systems are a lot more robust if you refused to lockdown, wear a mask and take the clotshot.
Next time, Magrietha, please follow the script! :)
I’m not dead yet and cashing those monthly checks gives me reason to keep living.
That’s not even true. We are very healthy and hope to live long lives. We don’t get a cent of state money. Our retirement is self funded. Don’’t retired Americans get $1000 a month from the government regardless?
The Americans we travel with on cruises in Europe have so much money.
To American Democratic Socialists: Beware the Ides of March.
"Democratic socialists". I was working with my students on literary techniques today. Oxymorons came up. If that isn't a perfect oxymoron, I don't know what is.
Spot on. And isn't the coming German financial crisis the fizzing bomb the Communists will hand to the AfD when they finally get defeated?
Sadly, this is a problem with a built-in solution: the poorer pensioners will die off all that quicker, and after about 15 years of that the system will have stabilised to a new equilibrium.
The exact same thing happened during the rapid switch-over from agrarian and dispersed populations to urbanised industrialised cities; without the safety-net of the large family, the men and women broken and ground down by the gristmills of capitalism quickly died once they were no longer productive enough to support themselves.
It is the same solution as infertility/below replacement levels of childbirths: it will reach a sustainable equilibrium.
If politicians stop tampering.
Which doesn't mean people should be left to suffer of course.
But also, if /you/ cannot pay for a servant to care for you in your own home when you reach that age, is it right to still live in your own private home supported by tax-funded servants?
Or is it simply a fact of economics that the best solution is institutions, where the cost/value-ratio for buildings, staff, logistics and so on can be optimised and thus taxes kept lower?
We know the Marxist solution and the capitalist solution: they are one and the same, only differing in semantics and optics.
Perhaps one dare suggest the nationalist solution instead?
To treat one's fellow members of The People - Das Volk! - as an extension of one's family.
That one has yet to be tried.
> I honestly don’t know what is going to happen; I don’t think anybody does.
I know what will happen. I will make a formal prediction right now, and we can revisit later to see if I was right.
It's simple: Anything that can't go on forever, won't.