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Yes, it has. Isn't Social Security a similar thing in US? For comparison: average pension in Russia is ~$220/month ("average" means there are people who get le

Yes, it has. Isn't Social Security a similar thing in US? For comparison: average pension in Russia is ~$220/month ("average" means there are people who get less than that). Wikipedia quotes average SS payments as $1,230/month. I don't have numbers, but my feeling is that almost no one has retirement savings in Russia; it is uncommon to save for retirement. It looks much worse in Russia overall - majority of population hopes to work until retirement age, then work more, then live off those tiny Social Security-like payments. On the upside, a lot of people is debt-free (though this is changing), and some level of medical services is also free.

oh_sigh 9y ago
Not to nitpick, but no, SS is essentially an immediate redistribution of funds from workers to some non workers. If SS was cancelled tomorrow, there would be no funds available to redistrubite to those who paid in.
- izacus 9y ago
  This is unfortuantely how most of European pension systems work - you don't accumulate money in the savings account, but they go immediately to the current receivers of pensions.
will_brown 9y ago
In my early to mid 20's I received a letter from the Social Security Administration and the estimate was I would be receiving $0.42 for every $1 I put in. It was kind of odd, I have never received such a letter before or since, but it wasn't very encouraging to think I am subsidizing the generation that put the County into this financial mess and I will never get that money back. Debt for individual households in the US is still relatively new, in 1950 it was nearly $0 and its now it is well over $10Trillion (closer to $13). Households in the US with debt have an average of $135,000. And counter-intuitively as incomes increase households are not less likely to be in debt, statistically they will have the most debt.

oh_sigh 9y ago

Not to nitpick, but no, SS is essentially an immediate redistribution of funds from workers to some non workers. If SS was cancelled tomorrow, there would be no funds available to redistrubite to those who paid in.

izacus 9y ago
This is unfortuantely how most of European pension systems work - you don't accumulate money in the savings account, but they go immediately to the current receivers of pensions.

will_brown 9y ago

In my early to mid 20's I received a letter from the Social Security Administration and the estimate was I would be receiving $0.42 for every $1 I put in. It was kind of odd, I have never received such a letter before or since, but it wasn't very encouraging to think I am subsidizing the generation that put the County into this financial mess and I will never get that money back. Debt for individual households in the US is still relatively new, in 1950 it was nearly $0 and its now it is well over $10Trillion (closer to $13). Households in the US with debt have an average of $135,000. And counter-intuitively as incomes increase households are not less likely to be in debt, statistically they will have the most debt.