I was about to respond to Carlos’ article with a post Rope on the pension reform. And so I was doing, but as I progressed, I realized that the answer was good enough for a new article. I hope Carlos doesn’t mind.
Initially I had thought of this title: “Reflections of a currela who has a bunch of years left to retire with a pension that allows him to spend Christmas in Benidorm.” But it was too long for me. And contrary to the pension reform, I have reduced the title in half.
First of all, let me tell you, Carlos, that I agree with most of your reflections. And based on yours, I would like to add some new ones in the form of contradictions that I have not been able to resolve and/or have not found a response from the promoters of the reform. Here are the same as they come to mind:
– It is said that the box is not sustainable over time, however, the GDP in recent years has not stopped growing. The largest companies in the country have grown exponentially and so has the economy in general. If the box is filled based on work income and the economy has grown a lot in recent decades, how is it possible for the box to be emptied? Could it be that the wealth generated is not distributed more fairly? Is the salary of the lowest incomes getting less and less?
– Another aspect that surprises me is the happy closed waterproof box. No one is surprised that we finance the war through the General State Budget and yet it seems inconceivable to us that pensions could have the slightest contribution from the PGE. And vice versa when there is a large surplus? It would be a good financing tool
– In addition, we have the highest youth unemployment in Europe and to support the young we make the old work until their bones break. I think that the logical thing to do would be for the young, healthy and strong, to work like mules so that the old people could gradually leave the labor market. Well, nothing, quite the opposite. Yesterday I heard a very good joke that said that it is not a question of reaching the economic level of Germany but of making it go back to us. That’s why we send our young people to Germany.
– Linked to the above, I have not heard anyone talk about the difference in the impact of this measure depending on the professional activity that is carried out. It seems that the work of the currela that paves roads is the same as that of the engineer who has drawn those same roads without leaving his air-conditioned office. No one has studied the relationship between life expectancy and length of useful life as workers. Spanish doctors would have a lot to say in this regard.
This all sounds a bit like labor market reform to me. Biased debates, media censorship of contrary opinions, and once the reforms are approved, disastrous results.
And in all this the role of the unions in the photo seems to me a bit lamentable. Trying to capitalize on a reform of this magnitude is little more than an insult to the workers they supposedly represent. However, I consider the role of the unions (at least the theoretical one) to be good for the entire economic system since it balances the forces and forces all parties to be more efficient. To put an analogy, it would be like the difference between a market with real competition or a market monopolized by a few companies where there was no real competition between companies and the abuse of customers was systematic (see the telecommunications market in Spain).
In conclusion, although the media does not say it clearly, all this seems to me to be the following. I’m telling you softly that they won’t raise the interest on my loan: (all this is so that the banks can finally sell us a private pension plan. In other words, they keep a good part of our savings for 38 5 years to later give us a small monthly allowance to have a few txikitos on the street of pussy).