All I keep hearing in the current Superannuation debate are boomer bureaucrats trying to tell GenXers they won’t be able to afford all the creamy cradle to the grave subsidisation their generation enjoyed.
Stop trying to steal our Super! As the first user pays generation, we need it!
Boomers grew up with a society fresh from the horrors of the Second World War. Men from all classes, religions and cultural backgrounds stood shoulder to shoulder and sacrificed for democracy and those who returned demanded the values they fought and died for were replicated at home.
So Boomers grow up in a time when it was believed the State had a sacred obligation to provide and support for everyone at all stages of their life. Boomers had a Cradle to Grave subsidisation and this has helped them become one of the wealthiest generations ever.
So what happened?
Neoliberalism happened.
Far right wing Economist Milton Friedman and his Chicago School of Economics argued in the 60s that Government interference in the market was what was creating problems and that the only solution was minimal Government. The Corporate OverLords loved this philosophy and weaponised it for politics throughout the 1970s.
Neoliberalism became mainstream with the election of Thatcher and Reagan and the 4th Labour Government.
Suddenly the belief of subsidising everyone from the cradle to the grave was thrown out by user pays. The universal well funded public services like Education, Health and true welfare agencies that actually cared about the welfare of the people they were meant to care about were suddenly facing crippling budget restrictions so the neo-liberal Government could hand over huge tax cuts to the rich.
Gen X were the first user pays generation, and while they were paying for their education, they were priced out of the property market by boomers who had enjoyed the subsidised existence pre-Friedman.
To now hear Boomer bureaucrats trying to tell Men Xers they will miss out on Super on top of all the other claw backs they’ve had to put up with is unacceptable, and Gen Xers need to rise up and smack these Boomer bureaucrats down!
Could be something to do with greatly increased life-spans since 1975, while keeping a fixed retirement age of 65, plus a dependency ratio blow-out as people have fewer children, and hence lower numbers of workers to support every person on Super.
The system was designed designed to look after people in retirement through compound interest. It doesn’t really matter if they live longer or some other bullshit conservative argument. Coumpound interest still proceeds okay?
Compound interest? On what pool of savings?
It’s a pay as you go scheme out of annual tax revenue..
Yes the payment is gaurented by the government. The $400-$600 payment can be easily serviced by the crown. The cost that can not be born out of the governments operating account is health and transport. These 3 parts to kiwi super, a weekly payment, free healthcare and a super good card with free public transport. That’s the minimum quality of life everyone can expect in retirement. The weekly payment is puny compared to the how catastrophic the health budget is going to blowout over the next 40 years, new hospitals, more prolonged and intense old aged care. For that we will need a large pool of money with which we can invest with. It’s the least we can do.
Free healthcare and a super gold card with free public transport?
You still have to pay to go to the doctor and any specialist you may eventually be referred to, plus the usual prescription charges.
Public transport is only free in offpeak hours.
Astounding, isn’t it. Diane Maxwell and her predecessor Diana Crossan occupied a position as retirement commissioner that seemed designed to soften everyone up for raising the qualifying age for super. But helping them are a collection of journalists and commenters eagerly published by news media all moaning the same Greek chorus. The one thing they probably have in common is that they are all in well-paid desk jobs that they’ll have no need to quit before they’re 70. They don’t speak for the 50-year-old labourer wielding a shovel in the rain.
As Susan St John and others have patiently pointed out, NZ Super is perfectly affordable if we’re willing to tax appropriately to pay for it. That probably means putting those who opt in to receiving NZ Super on a special tax rate that would clip the wings of the wealthy who have no need of it. Yes, bring back the Surtax! It also means raising New Zealand’s top general income tax rate from its present low 33 per cent to something like Australia’s and Britain’s, both north of 45 per cent.
NZ Super should be simply an instrument of transferring wealth to those who need it to survive from those who have much more than they need.
I’d suggest that instead of raising income tax, a levy on productivity be raised lifting super contributions from 9 or 12 percent or what ever it is now to 15%. A 30% tax on the economy is more than enough to pay for government operations. The issue is Auckland will need a new hospital, new schools, new water, new connectivity. I think most of that can be funded out of the ACC & super fund.
Surtax or means test or raise tax on the 10%. Of course whichever government that actually does the obvious will get hell over it.
If the Boomer had left Norman Kirk’s saveing scheme lone we wouldn’t have a problem these greedy doomers need to be stopped enough is enough we need to means test the pricks they have taken everything and now the bill is due and they plan to screw.over our generation to pay it
Neoliberalism from both National and Labour governments have an immigration agenda which means that new arrivals on various visas like a 2 year working visa can get free health care, free education straight away for their children, and superannuation and gold card after first 5 years residency, (grudgingly changed to 10 years now but tens of thousands got it within 5 years) and the government were warned about it years ago but went ahead anyway. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1110/S00572/grey-power-warns-of-impact-of-high-immigration-rates.htm
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/315435/migrants'-parents-cost-nz-'tens-of-millions‘
I suspect the agenda here is to get rid of the pension and have people just save for their retirement. If people are too “feckless” (ie they choose to pay the power bill rather than put it towards their retirement) or have it wiped out in the next crash, hard luck and you can take your chances with WINZ. 67 is just the start. Next it will be mean testing, cutting the rate so that it is the same as what used to be the unemployment benefit, etc and so on.
If anything, NS should be increased to 80% of the average wage, and the age lowered to 60.
And, take it from me, an office job is just as phyically taxing as a manual job, with:
1) Eye strain from staring at a monitor
2) Carpal tunnel syndrome and RSI from typing
3) Ear problems from the use of a telephone headset
4) A trend toward standing desks that will lead to a lot of employees having to stand for hours at a time, increasing the risk of fatigue
5) My self personally, in my office job from 13 and a half years, I now have calluses on my elbows from when I lean on the desk
Who are the bureaucrats, and, where do we find them? Are they local govt or central govt?
The so called “cradle to the grave” notion died after Douglas, Prebble, Moore, Richardson, Shipley , Key, English and the labour party gave up on it.
The meaningless generation comparison is stupid.
Everybody did, has , and still is paying for yet another “unfortunate experiment”.
Generational blame is idiocy.
You are not the only media person to fall into this illogical idiocy.
It happens when interviewing keyboards.
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