Pensioners have paid into the system, though. Yes, it’s a Ponzi scheme that no one sane would want to enter into in the first place, but they’re still entitled to get something out.
I agree with the normative statement that pensioners who pay in are “entitled to get something out”, but it’s a new claim. My comment, like the bit of entirelyuseless’s comment to which it responded, was about an empirical claim.
Pensioners have paid into the system, though.
The fact remains that there is a big group of people in Europe who can, in fact, claim government cash even if they declare that they have worked, and could work, but just don’t want to work. Insofar as entirelyuseless’s general point was that someone has to work to keep an economy going, that point is well taken, but the empirical claim about Europe is materially false.
(And, regarding the more general argument, if there were a basic income, the vast majority of people claiming it would likewise have paid into the system, through general taxation. So the fact of paying in doesn’t do a very good job of distinguishing a BI from a pension scheme.)
Yes, it’s a Ponzi scheme
How so? To my mind, a defining property of a Ponzi scheme is that it’s fraudulent, deceptive (or at least opaque) about where it finds the money that it disburses. But — in my European country, anyway — the government publishes annual accounts for its pension fund, which are, as far as I know, uncooked books. Check ’em out.
Pensioners have paid into the system, though. Yes, it’s a Ponzi scheme that no one sane would want to enter into in the first place, but they’re still entitled to get something out.
I agree with the normative statement that pensioners who pay in are “entitled to get something out”, but it’s a new claim. My comment, like the bit of entirelyuseless’s comment to which it responded, was about an empirical claim.
The fact remains that there is a big group of people in Europe who can, in fact, claim government cash even if they declare that they have worked, and could work, but just don’t want to work. Insofar as entirelyuseless’s general point was that someone has to work to keep an economy going, that point is well taken, but the empirical claim about Europe is materially false.
(And, regarding the more general argument, if there were a basic income, the vast majority of people claiming it would likewise have paid into the system, through general taxation. So the fact of paying in doesn’t do a very good job of distinguishing a BI from a pension scheme.)
How so? To my mind, a defining property of a Ponzi scheme is that it’s fraudulent, deceptive (or at least opaque) about where it finds the money that it disburses. But — in my European country, anyway — the government publishes annual accounts for its pension fund, which are, as far as I know, uncooked books. Check ’em out.