alt Hacker NewsIn the Australian system, your employer has to pay 12% of your pay into a pension ("superannuation") fund of your choice. Taxpayers still pay for pensions for those whose individual pension accounts have run out – but, in coming decades, that taxpayer expenditure is projected to shrink. [0]
Maybe the US should look at copying it? Well, Trump has expressed interest in doing so. [1] But, Australia has had something like this since the 1990s, so even if the US adopted the Australian model tomorrow, it would take a few decades for it to really make an impact.
[0] https://www.thesenior.com.au/story/9346972/age-pension-spend...
[1] https://www.ncpers.org/blog/what-trumps-interest-in-australi...
Replies
We have plenty of great savings and retirement options in America. The problem is the word "option". Many people do not take any option but they still get old.
Social security is fine, whatever, no one likes living off it so industrious people will work hard and save on top of it. I am more annoyed when people say America has no social safety net when it spends absolute gobsmacking amounts on social security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The hiccup has _always_ been figuring out how to pay for existing retirees. That's why it's PAYG instead of a savings plan.
But more fundamentally, SS is more of an age pension[1]. Super is the step above that, akin to forcing all americans to fund their 401k / IRA.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_security_in_Australia#A...