4 ms·

Oh yes and everybody should set up their sewage systems and raise their own crops in their own backyards. Society doesn't function like that.

• paulddraper 10y ago
  That is a good illistration of specialization of labor, but I'm not sure how that related to the OP.
  • omginternets 10y ago
    I think his point is that civilization is based on the principle of not letting people fend for themselves (e.g.: through public works like sewage systems), and that this naturally extends to retirement pensions.
    • gkya 10y ago
      The point is that civilisation is nothing else than working together as a society. The retirement system is not philantrophy, it's retributions for those who spent a good part of their life as a cog in the machine. And it's not like the retired receive their pensions ex nihilo, they pay in advance through the social security cuts (1). We teach our children to become a part of the civilisation and take care of them until they actually do so. And we should equally take care of the elderly because they've already took their part in the civilised society, and now they have the right to enjoy their last hours in peace. But we always like receiving, and giving always torments us. That's no civilisation, though, but just a bad likeness thereof. (1) That's, at least, how it functions here in Turkey: every month, a certain amount of your wage goes to your retirement fund, and when you retire, you receive your pension, an amount that depends on your past contributions to your fund and on the height of your position.
      • omginternets 10y ago
        Indeed, but that's beside the immediate point I was clarifying.