Comment by Al-Khwarizmi

14 hours ago

Pension expenditure in Spain is out of proportion from any point of view, though. I'll provide links to some graphs because I think they give more information than my words could:

https://elequidistante.github.io/graficos-jongonzlz/pensione...

And maybe this is the most illustrative:

https://i.redd.it/uwvgxycxhjeg1.jpeg

So yes, the reason why we are underinvesting in pretty much everything is basically pensions. GDP is up, tax collection is up, debt to GDP is sligthly decreasing... but pension expenses keep growing at a fast pace so there's less and less money for everything else. And I say this with both of my parents earning the maximum pension, so I don't have an axe to grind, but it's just reality.

2 comments

Al-Khwarizmi

Kurtz79 1 hour ago

It's a trend that is pretty much inevitable for a country where birth rates have been dropping starkly for decades, so that less people generating the taxable income that pays for those pensions enters the workforce, than those who leave it.

At the same time, medical advances make it so that retirees live longer than before: https://relojpublico.es/poblacion/esperanza-de-vida

If someone has solutions that would not cause widespread riots, I'm sure most goverments of countries in a similar situation would be all ears.

bombcar 11 hours ago

Spain will solve the problem by buying train tickets for all the pensioners.