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>We're essentially paying out of pocket for the current retirees and by the time we retire there will be nobody to pay our pension. Australia's system is sligh

>We're essentially paying out of pocket for the current retirees and by the time we retire there will be nobody to pay our pension. Australia's system is slightly different, in that the pension funds are privately owned and the government (currently) has no way to take money out of them or use it for anything else. People here'd be pretty pissed off if the government started dipping into their super.

Swizec 11y ago
To be fair, I don't think our government is dipping into anything. They're just using the funds to pay out current pensions because there isn't enough money in the system. Why there isn't enough money in the system I don't know. There are likely to be multiple factors ranging from the fact that the country is just 25 years old, that there's been population decline or stagnation, or that those pension funds weren't growing enough. Hard to say.
- rodgerd 11y ago
  > Why there isn't enough money in the system I don't know. If it's anything like most countries, because the generation currently drawing a pension never paid in remotely enough in taxes to cover it.
  - vetinari 11y ago
    The sad thing is, that they probably paid enough, when considering purchase-power-parity over the decades. It is just the inflation that destroyed the savings. It does not matter, whether the government is running the fund or whether it is privately owned, the result will be the same.
- logicchains 11y ago
  >To be fair, I don't think our government is dipping into anything. They're just using the funds to pay out current pensions because there isn't enough money in the system. That's what I meant by dipping in: they're using the funds. In the Australian system each person's funds are in their own account and the government can't use it for anything else, nor can the super fund, so it's impossible for someone to be paid out of someone else's account.
pjc50 11y ago
Oh, there are ways to get at the money via fiddling with tax status: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-1692321/Has-Labour-really-ransacked-our-pensions.html http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-1692321/...

Swizec 11y ago

To be fair, I don't think our government is dipping into anything. They're just using the funds to pay out current pensions because there isn't enough money in the system. Why there isn't enough money in the system I don't know. There are likely to be multiple factors ranging from the fact that the country is just 25 years old, that there's been population decline or stagnation, or that those pension funds weren't growing enough. Hard to say.

rodgerd 11y ago
> Why there isn't enough money in the system I don't know. If it's anything like most countries, because the generation currently drawing a pension never paid in remotely enough in taxes to cover it.
- vetinari 11y ago
  The sad thing is, that they probably paid enough, when considering purchase-power-parity over the decades. It is just the inflation that destroyed the savings. It does not matter, whether the government is running the fund or whether it is privately owned, the result will be the same.
logicchains 11y ago
>To be fair, I don't think our government is dipping into anything. They're just using the funds to pay out current pensions because there isn't enough money in the system. That's what I meant by dipping in: they're using the funds. In the Australian system each person's funds are in their own account and the government can't use it for anything else, nor can the super fund, so it's impossible for someone to be paid out of someone else's account.

pjc50 11y ago

Oh, there are ways to get at the money via fiddling with tax status: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-1692321/Has-Labour-really-ransacked-our-pensions.html http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-1692321/...