Excellent reasons to hate the wealthy

[Svartalf]

no evidence except that he's been taking money away from services benefitting the poor to fund his humongous tax cuts to the wealthy, and his attitude toward unrest in the health service seems to be 'budget cuts, deal with it'. our system might need to be updated, meaning we need more doctors, more hospitals (in part to train even more doctors), and generally more access to health... last time I went to hospital emergency, I arrived at 5 PM and my case was handled at midnight, with my broken wrist causing me unsufferable pain, and when they saw the x rays, they did not give me pain drugs either, I was not allowed any until late the next morning, when they sedated me for the operation (I stilll have the titanium plate and screws inside). tell me that waiting8 hours in pain is acceptable, and they were doing their job as well as they could, they were just completely overwhelmed with all the people.

[Scot Dutchy]

An update is definitely required. Do you have a two tier system?

[Strontium Dog]

55? Seriously? I think it's about 63 or 65 here, and they have been trying to put it up to 67 recently. Fucking barbaric. Fifty-five seems reasonable I guess. Gives most people plenty of years and health to enjoy retirement. I'm not convinced that private enterprise alone is the only way to go about providing pensions. Particularly in light of you using as a counterpoint an authoritarian militaristic state that started out its "socialism" experiment largely agrarian.

Well, 55 was a number I picked out of the air to be honest. Some people retire earlier (I have an uncle who was an electrician and retired at 50, police often retire at 50 too), a lot of people work to 60, or 65, and even then a lot of them choose to work part-time even when in receipt of a pension - my dad is 67 and works about 3 days a week.

If a government made it mandatory for companies of a certain size to provide decent pension schemes they would all be on a level playing field - but the economic shift to the right in most developed countries isn't going to see that happening any time soon.

I think the coalition made some progress towards this when they introduced automatic enrolment into workplace pensions for anyone earning more than £10k, which has given millions of people a workplace pension for the first time. There is a bigger issue over the millions of self-employed who aren't saving enough for their retirement.

[PsychoSerenity]

But we need to work right up until we die. Otherwise, SOCIALISTM!!!1

The great irony is that people can only retire if they have pensions, and people can only have pensions if they invest money in the sort of private enterprises that a pure socialist state would abolish. People worked to death in the USSR, here they retire at 55.

Impressive. Every single bit of that is wrong.

[Scot Dutchy]

But we need to work right up until we die. Otherwise, SOCIALISTM!!!1

The great irony is that people can only retire if they have pensions, and people can only have pensions if they invest money in the sort of private enterprises that a pure socialist state would abolish. People worked to death in the USSR, here they retire at 55.

Impressive. Every single bit of that is wrong.

It is so wrong that it makes you wonder what the original thought was.

[Rum]

The current maximum State Pension in the UK is £164 a week, depending on how much you have put in. That's fuck all these days. There are 'supplementary' benefits but they are tough to get. So if you want to be retired and not in poverty you need have contributed to an occupational pension - or more recently, start contributing to one you set up yourself. I was a terrible planner in my younger days and was therefore very lucky that I has an automatic opt in to local government pension schemes. Frankly if it had been left up to me I would have probably left it to the point where my pension was crap.

There are few young people on this forum any more but my advice would be save as fucking much as you can - unless you want to be poor when you finish work.

[Strontium Dog]

But we need to work right up until we die. Otherwise, SOCIALISTM!!!1

The great irony is that people can only retire if they have pensions, and people can only have pensions if they invest money in the sort of private enterprises that a pure socialist state would abolish. People worked to death in the USSR, here they retire at 55.

Impressive. Every single bit of that is wrong.

I don't view "magic money out of thin air" as a serious argument, sorry.

[laklak]

There are few young people on this forum any more but my advice would be save as fucking much as you can - unless you want to be poor when you finish work.

Absolutely. Trust me, you'll enjoy that money far more when you're not working. S'truth.

[Svartalf]

An update is definitely required. Do you have a two tier system?

two tier system? whaddya mean?

[Brian Peacock]

The current maximum State Pension in the UK is £164 a week, depending on how much you have put in. That's fuck all these days. There are 'supplementary' benefits but they are tough to get. So if you want to be retired and not in poverty you need have contributed to an occupational pension - or more recently, start contributing to one you set up yourself. I was a terrible planner in my younger days and was therefore very lucky that I has an automatic opt in to local government pension schemes. Frankly if it had been left up to me I would have probably left it to the point where my pension was crap.

There are few young people on this forum any more but my advice would be save as fucking much as you can - unless you want to be poor when you finish work.

What annoys me is that the letters about my pension now refer to it as a welfare benefit. It's not a fucking hand out you fuckers - you stole that money out of my pay packet and I fucking deserve every fucking penny The trust fund will only stretch so far you arseholes

[JimC]

We have what is called "superannuation" in Oz, which is compulsory, has an employer and employee contribution, with some government money as well, plus very low taxes. There are a large number of funds, some much better than others. Luckily, my fund was in the top 5, and my retirement pension is very good indeed. I also had a supplementary bank superannuation fund, into which I had put $20,000 when mum passed away - it became nearly $50,000, tax free, when I retired, which I took as a lump sum to splurge on holidays. Can't complain...

[Rum]

We have what is called "superannuation" in Oz, which is compulsory, has an employer and employee contribution, with some government money as well, plus very low taxes. There are a large number of funds, some much better than others. Luckily, my fund was in the top 5, and my retirement pension is very good indeed. I also had a supplementary bank superannuation fund, into which I had put $20,000 when mum passed away - it became nearly $50,000, tax free, when I retired, which I took as a lump sum to splurge on holidays. Can't complain...

They call it superannuation here too. I think our generation has yet again has won the lottery. Plus teachers - their pension schemes are excellent here too. One thing I don't begrudge their unions for.

How a young kid with a degree and the desire to get reliable and secure, if middling income wise - sort of employment is supposed to go about trying to ensure some sort of security for their older years is beyond me. The way things are going here in the UK we are going to have some serious poverty in store for future generations of old farts like us.

[JimC]

My son Nick is already taken the wise course of increasing his contribution to his super (which you do pre-tax, which helps a lot). He won't miss a few dollars now, but it will make a big difference later on...

[PsychoSerenity]

But we need to work right up until we die. Otherwise, SOCIALISTM!!!1

The great irony is that people can only retire if they have pensions, and people can only have pensions if they invest money in the sort of private enterprises that a pure socialist state would abolish. People worked to death in the USSR, here they retire at 55.

Impressive. Every single bit of that is wrong.

I don't view "magic money out of thin air" as a serious argument, sorry.

No, you prefer to follow a string of bullshit with a complete non sequitur in the form of an anti left trope. You're about as coherent as Trump.

[Brian Peacock]

All money is magicked out of thin air.