Inflation-adjusted home prices in China have fallen below where they started two decades ago, and the fiscal fallout is hitting local governments even harder than developers.
A few years ago in China a guy went viral on billibilli (their version of YouTube) for covering how hard it was to be retired in China. The CCP took his Channel away and censored him. Funnily enough in the years since the CCP has made strides in increasing the payout of their social security system.
So they censored him and then responded to the criticism anyway.
Honestly --minus the censorship-- I wish the US would handle it this way. Stop relying on 401ks and housing value to backstop peoples retirement and increase social security payouts. The elderly have earned their right to take a break from the grind of capitalism. They should be relaxing and passing on what they’ve learned from their time on earth to the next generation.
So they censored him and then responded to the criticism anyway.
Being criticized meant they were losing face. Saving face is very important in many Asian cultures.
Stop relying on 401ks and housing value to backstop peoples retirement and increase social security payouts
Not gonna work in an aging society unfortunately. Social security payouts come from current taxes. If you don’t have enough young people, you can’t really fund social security. If you have a national pension fund that collects money for your retirement as YOU work, it’s not too different from a 401k, the only difference is who has control over it. Most countries don’t do that though.
Fun story: My country has a system similar to 401k (it has deferred taxation, reduced taxation and government matching, so basically free money), but you couldn’t take money out of it until retirement… Until a few years ago when conservatives changed it, so now you can take money out, but if you do, you pay full taxes and you can’t resume payments for 10 years. At least a third of the country took that opportunity. Our equivalent of social security hasn’t been significantly increased and in fact retirement age is being raised by roughly a month a year currently because otherwise the system would become unaffordable. At this point I’m considering cashing mine in in a few years only because I’m afraid that if the conservatives get enough power they’ll manage to pass some stupid ass law taking away everyone’s funds and using it to fund increased social security for their current old voters, at which point I’ll just lose all of it unlike the people who have taken theirs out.
All forms of retirement are funded by current workers. Social security is just more honest about it. A retired person is still consuming goods and services produced by the working without producing anything themselves.
You’re presenting your argument as if it were fact. Which is how conservatives always try to frame their arguments around social security.
Basic question, if its so impossible for it to work why is China able to do it?
Basic answer, it’s not impossible – it just requires a progressive taxation for social security where the rich pay into it more. Which is why conservatives are so against it.
Look man, money is fake the only question that ultimately matters is ‘can we produce enough stuff?’. Which in the context of modern industrial production the answer is ‘in most cases, yes’.
Certainly in terms of producing enough housing and food for the elderly the answer is yes. The only place where there might be a limitation for the elderly is healthcare. If you gotta problem with that maybe we should adopt Cuba’s healthcare system. They have more doctors per capita than any other nation on earth in spite of decades of crippling sanctions. Before Trump reintroduced the blockade they also had higher life expectancy than the US.
Maybe a pension system should be managed that way for inflationary reasons. But money does not exist until the state spends it into the economy. Dollars do not exist in nature.
A few years ago in China a guy went viral on billibilli (their version of YouTube) for covering how hard it was to be retired in China. The CCP took his Channel away and censored him. Funnily enough in the years since the CCP has made strides in increasing the payout of their social security system.
So they censored him and then responded to the criticism anyway.
Honestly --minus the censorship-- I wish the US would handle it this way. Stop relying on 401ks and housing value to backstop peoples retirement and increase social security payouts. The elderly have earned their right to take a break from the grind of capitalism. They should be relaxing and passing on what they’ve learned from their time on earth to the next generation.
Being criticized meant they were losing face. Saving face is very important in many Asian cultures.
Not gonna work in an aging society unfortunately. Social security payouts come from current taxes. If you don’t have enough young people, you can’t really fund social security. If you have a national pension fund that collects money for your retirement as YOU work, it’s not too different from a 401k, the only difference is who has control over it. Most countries don’t do that though.
Fun story: My country has a system similar to 401k (it has deferred taxation, reduced taxation and government matching, so basically free money), but you couldn’t take money out of it until retirement… Until a few years ago when conservatives changed it, so now you can take money out, but if you do, you pay full taxes and you can’t resume payments for 10 years. At least a third of the country took that opportunity. Our equivalent of social security hasn’t been significantly increased and in fact retirement age is being raised by roughly a month a year currently because otherwise the system would become unaffordable. At this point I’m considering cashing mine in in a few years only because I’m afraid that if the conservatives get enough power they’ll manage to pass some stupid ass law taking away everyone’s funds and using it to fund increased social security for their current old voters, at which point I’ll just lose all of it unlike the people who have taken theirs out.
All forms of retirement are funded by current workers. Social security is just more honest about it. A retired person is still consuming goods and services produced by the working without producing anything themselves.
You’re presenting your argument as if it were fact. Which is how conservatives always try to frame their arguments around social security.
Basic question, if its so impossible for it to work why is China able to do it?
Basic answer, it’s not impossible – it just requires a progressive taxation for social security where the rich pay into it more. Which is why conservatives are so against it.
Look man, money is fake the only question that ultimately matters is ‘can we produce enough stuff?’. Which in the context of modern industrial production the answer is ‘in most cases, yes’.
Certainly in terms of producing enough housing and food for the elderly the answer is yes. The only place where there might be a limitation for the elderly is healthcare. If you gotta problem with that maybe we should adopt Cuba’s healthcare system. They have more doctors per capita than any other nation on earth in spite of decades of crippling sanctions. Before Trump reintroduced the blockade they also had higher life expectancy than the US.
Increase social security payouts with what?
Yes, everyone should have a pension plan, but you have to pay into that.
No you don’t, money is fake, we made it up.
Maybe a pension system should be managed that way for inflationary reasons. But money does not exist until the state spends it into the economy. Dollars do not exist in nature.