Comment by paxys

5 days ago

You can retire whenever you want. The government decides when to start funding it.

As for why - the same reason why they get to decide what side of the road you drive on and what laws you follow. They rule the patch of land you were born on, and if you don't like it you can either participate in the system (assuming it's a democracy) or leave.

23 comments

paxys

Reply
cryptonector  5 days ago

The real question is not why the government gets to set the retirement age. Of course it gets to set it IF it's involved in paying for people's retirements!

The real question is why governments insist on euphemistic names ("forced savings") that imply the opposite of the reality of the programs. And why people put up with such financial repression schemes. The answer to the first question is to keep people from being too upset too suddenly, too many all at once. The answer to the latter is that the people usually don't get a say in these things.

For Singapore this program probably makes a great deal of sense since Singapore is singularly vulnerable given its location in the world. To build what they did they probably needed these sorts of policies. I suspect most Singaporeans don't mind all that much, though I don't know. We would very much mind this sort of thing here in the U.S. though!

foxyv  5 days ago

This boils down to a "Might makes right" claim. It doesn't answer the question why. Only how.

  • jonahx  5 days ago

    It definitely answers why. You are asking for an appeal to some moral justification. But there isn't one, and it doesn't matter. That's the whole point of "might makes right".

    • mothballed  5 days ago

      CPF makes a moral justification by arguing it is a "savings and pension plan" under the auspices of a moral justification of helping citizens set aside their own money. The very first thing you are greeted with on their website is that it's savings and an overview represents it as "setting aside" your own funds.

      The government makes a moral justification of a savings plan but then when we dig down to it it's all ether and really just a scheme for bond rate arbitrage for the government.

      The point isn't that might makes right is false, it's that the moral justification is a facade.

      2 replies →

    • foxyv  5 days ago

      In an attempt to steelman, you are saying:

      "There is no moral justification for the government setting a retirement age, but they are able to. So it doesn't matter."

      8 replies →