zlacker

>>rntn+(OP)
I always see the words pensions in civic deficit news. I'm early 30s and pensions are a concept that nobody my age or younger will ever benefit from yet is footing the bill for.

>>kyleho+mc
You’ve already benefited from them, by getting government services at a lower up front cost by acquiring labor with the promise of them on the backend.

(And, barring those promises not being fulfilled, plenty of people your age and younger have already been working in jobs that qualify them for pensions when they reach a certain age, or have a relative with such a pension with survivorship benefits, and will benefit from them as beneficiaries.)

>>dragon+zd
They're beneficial to younger generations, provided that there's enough value generated by the younger generations to cover the cost of the pension.

The problem is, this new wave of retirees - the Baby Boomers - did not have enough children. Their children's generation - the Millennials - can thus charge more for their labor. The Millennials also aren't having enough children.

This means that the people generating the value are taking more of the value for themselves to live on (though not relative to inflation, but that's a different conversation), and there's fewer of them contributing to pensions through various government revenue schemes.

Also, anecdotally, my parents have far more expensive plans for their retirement than my grandparents ever did.