Hi Brent, This is common practice in Europe, it just might be more or less blatantly done. My mother had her pension cut several times in the last few years. Even though she payed full contributions her entire life, at some point the state decides it needs the money for other stuff and that's that.
Notice that in (continental) Europe social security contributions are not an investment. Instead, the current generation of workers is directly paying for the pensions of the current generation of retired workers. There is simply a social contract, that the same will be done for them when the time comes. Of course, this is highly vulnerable to demographic changes, and that is part of what we are seeing now. It is also highly vulnerable to mob rule. Governments gain full control over pension funds, so they can redistribute money as they see fit. A common strategy to get elected has been to cut pensions from people who contributed the most money during their working careers to give it to people who didn't so much. You never know what will happen when the next government comes into power. This is not to say that letting Wall Street manage pensions funds turns out to be any better. A reasonable solution doesn't seem to exist so far. Best, Telmo. On Sun, Sep 27, 2015 at 6:31 AM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote: > Bruno, do you know anything about this: > > > http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Adam-Smith-Institute-Blog/2011/0102/European-nations-begin-seizing-private-pensions > > Brent > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
