It’s 15% in the US that disappears into a system which probably will run out of money within 15 years. Covid is helping though, so maybe it won’t.
You’re paying for old people not to die of starvation. At 19% that’s not a terrible deal imo. Admittedly some of those old people were probably lazy and some were probably stupid but many were just unlucky and those things shouldn’t be a death sentence imo. You might even get some of it back eventually if you’re lucky enough to be poor when you’re older.
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I guess if rustled means thinking somebody’s opinion is wrong like 75% of the time, I guess you got us. But absolutely nobody is rustled about the amount of vacation she has or her work arrangements. I’m more interested in why she thinks she has it so good while cranking out 80 hour work weeks.
If anyone was rustled yesterday it was her. Go back and check out her complete meltdown, if those posts are still there.
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I pay into SS/Medicare in the US and I’ll be super up front about the fact that I resent paying into it. From what I can tell the Boomers didn’t pay in their share and I’m going to be forced to contribute my share + the shortfall on their share over the rest of my life in a variety of ways. Yes I’m a bitter person, sue me.
Zara I’d guess that you’re probably wrong about the German retirement system though. My guess is that you’ll get paid out when you get old. I wouldn’t ever make a practice of betting against Germany’s ability to care for its own people. Productivity per capita wise it might be the best economy in the world.
Social Security isn’t even in that bad of shape despite the Boomers basically raping it. Healthcare is where they put most of the disparity between contributions and benefits.
Social security systems (here I’m talking about old age income, not healthcare) are pretty resilient. Even though they are pension systems, their risk factors tend to run along demographic trends and not market volatility like other pension plans. Demographic risks tend to present themselves long in advance so at least you have an opportunity to deal with tomorrow’s problems instead of desperately trying to patch up yesterday’s damage. Really the only way to wreck a social security pension system is to do so intentionally by ignoring demographic warning signs decades in advance.
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Hey, when I got up this morning I didn’t see any indication of a new thread for it. Sorry.
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So much simpler in the CR
Czech Republic
15% flat tax
6.5% social security*
4.5% health insurance*
0.0% unemployment insurance (paid for by employer - 1.2%)
0.0% sickness insurance (paid for by employer - 2.3%)
*Obviously this is only the employee contribution. Employee pays 1/3 of health taxes and 1/5 of social security taxes
If you make enough to max out all available tax sheltered investments, but not too much more than that, even with a state tax you can end up paying much less than 50%. The people that really get screwed are folks that make just enough to pay all their bills, but not much more than that, since they cannot stuff a bunch of money into tax shelters to drive down their effective rates. (I’m a prime example of somebody who should be paying more taxes.)
Yeah but our tiny towns get to have tanks!
USA #1!
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I know you like English lessons, so here is one for this sentence.
When you are listing two things and saying you are neither of them, the second thing is preceded by the word nor. For example, I am neither rich nor good looking.
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Everyone wants high quality German engineering, including Americans. The same isn’t true of American products except for maybe Apple. Tesla is still very niche. I cant even think of anything else high quality that sells here. I guess you could count google and Microsoft, but Germany doesn’t realy produce cheap n cheerful shit the way other countries do.
I’m also left with about 65% of my gross UK pay after deductions.
Don’t know what low tax USA is doing wrong. Too many foreign invasions and not enough tax on high earners probably.
Im working poor and say good on poor people scamming the system.
Better them than the rich like the trumps of the world who do. There is where the anger should be.
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So how many kids do you have?
You always have a choice. You could get politically active. Propose a new system. The problem right now is that you can win elections by simply catering to old people. Pensions arent the only thing. Fighting climate change is in the same range where its probably hard to convince older people to cut down on certain stuff when they wont experience the aftermath.
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You resent poor people who sit on their butts and do nothing. You seem ok with the rich ones who do.
If half the energy was put into stopping the rich from gaming the system as is put into stopping the poor…
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The entire fucking point of capitalism is to be rich enough to sit on your ass and do nothing while your money makes you even wealthier. I know a lot of rich people. All they do is play golf and poker every day.
Like Jesus. If you’re upset about people sitting on their ass all day and getting by, you’re going to be irate when you learn about generational wealth and inheritance in this country.
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Should have @'d me.
Thanks for asking - I’ll always do ok away from a corporate environment. I’ve been pretty much self-taught since leaving school, first in helping to set up a photography workshop for unemployed people and teach there, then when that folded (because the 80s government pulled the plug on council funding) I found myself working in the office of a warehouse during a big switch from manual to computerisation in the mid 80s, and the 40+ year old guys there were terrified of the new monitor and keyboard that sat in their office so they asked if I could try using it lol, which wasn’t at all scary but interesting, and started my interest in programming, leading to other jobs.
Ultimately as with most things I became somewhat bored by it and needed a new “project” for my spare time and got involved with online poker and, like most here, now wish I’d played bigger stakes before Black Friday. When that happened I moved into sports betting (which is tax free here) as a hobby and eventual second income (after about 3 years of losing at the start it’s been profitable for a long while).
tl;dr online sports betting fascinates me, not because of any interest in sports but from a beat the market perspective
Sorry for the derail.
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Well and do you know how many have to work a shitty job just to get around? Do you think they got more out of their “one life”?
I used to be similar. I was happy about the employees who would work longer and make life easier for me. But you also had these who fulfilled their duty but couldnt be bothered to do more. My 2nd in command is similar to me. She cant stand the coworkers who dont identify with the company. We lost a collegue out of nowhere at the beginning of the year. Now I think a lot more that we only live once and its not my business to insist on people doing more than both sides agreed on when they signed the papers. Its a personal decision for everyone and that should be respected especially when doing more doesnt really get rewarded.
This year is really an awakening. First the loss of a collegue, then Covid, one of my collegues has a kid as a patient who has terminal cancer and climate change is a huge problem as well. There are so many places to go so many things to see on this planet, so much stuff to do but life could be over from one day to the next. Is “work” really that thing that should define our life. I watch “the bucketlist family” from time to time. The guy build an app, sold it for a lot and now living their dream. I am one who prefers security(or is afraid of failure). I always postpone stuff for a better timeslot. My dad had one advice for me “Dont postpone. There will always be some factor that wouldnt seem optimal. You would never fullfil any of your dreams.”
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The problem is “work” is defined as something that adds value to GDP and that you get paid for.
There is a lot of “work” that gets done in our society that is not recognized. That is where we need to start.
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For those of you who think that being poor is a character defect here is a good place to start.
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