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Don't know about Tate and other countries, but that's literally how public pensions work here in Norway. The government relies on taxes paid each year to fund a
by magicalhippo 9mo ago
Don't know about Tate and other countries, but that's literally how public pensions work here in Norway. The government relies on taxes paid each year to fund all the pensions they have to pay each year.
Worked well when the country was growing in population, not so much now that the growth is negative (especially working population). Hence it's the primary reason why we renamed our "Oil fund" to "The pension fund"[1].
For private companies it's different, they have to actually put money in a personal pension account for each employee. The company can't fool around with it afterwards.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Norway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Nor...
- onesandofgrain 9mo agoWhat would happen if the norwegian government spent the whole fund?
- magicalhippo 9mo agoIf they spent it abroad on say Dutch tulips, so it didn't affect the Norwegian economy directly then short term we'd have to significantly cut spending. While there's a rule in place to withdraw less than 3% of the value to ensure long-term survival of the fund, due to its size that now constitutes a significant part of the national budget. For 2026 they'll be withdrawing 2.9%, which translates to about 580B NOK, or $58B USD. However the total spending in the 2026 national budget is 2200B NOK, or $220B USD. So the fund covers about 26% of the budget for 2026. Lets just say it would be very painful if we suddenly did not have that fund. If they liquidated it today and put it all in a bank account and wanted to spend it all inside the country, they could fund over 10 years worth of 2026 national budgets in its entirety.