Quote:
Originally Posted by August
Germany has added over 11 million more people to your population since WW2. How come the pension scheme depends even higher population growth than that?
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Do you mean the estimated 11 million German refugees that were forced to leave countries in Eastern Europe because of the war Hitler Germany started there or do you mean that 11 million people immigrated to Germany in total since 1945?
Anyway, I think Beton has already given a good explanation.
The pension scheme at least here in Germany is based on an intergenerational contract, that is : the younger ones who still work pay into the old age insurance whereof the retired ones get their pensions paid. That way the young ones support the old ones.
When old people are getting older then let's say 100 years ago and at the same time the population is shrinking because the birth rate is getting lower, then fewer people have to finance the pensions of a growing number of older people.
Worst case would be that it turns out that you paid more money into the old age insurance than you get out of it once you retire yourself. Then the young ones would probably withdrawal from the intergenerational contract as the doctrine of frustration applies.
Right now, the old age insurance is getting more and more expensive.