(I typed it all before, then the server connection went doodoo while posting, so this time it will be much shorter )

Sometimes I really really hate my fellow Germans, especially when the "Generationenvertrag" is concerned. That means "generation contract" and is the system that finances the retirement of our elderly people. It works really simple: Those who work, in whatever job, pay a certain percentage of their income to power the system which then provides those too old to keep working with their retirement incomes.

A nice concept, back in the time when it was conceived. Whose idea was it? That of none other than "Iron Chancellor" Bismarck, back in the 1870s!

Now guess what? The system is based on a healthy population pyramid with many young workers at the base and few old ones at the top receiving the money. The burden thus is placed on many many shoulders and no one need to fear collapsing under the financial load. Back in the old German empire it was the solution.

Now add advanced medical care and sinking birth rates, and what do you get?

The pyramid has become a mushroom. Just how little IQ do you need to realize that the contract can't work that way?!

Yet what happens here?

The politicians, who should have known about the coming problem since the 70s, keep announcing "the solution that will keep the contract working".

The labor unions demand "a working solution to keep the contract alive" from the government.

And the common people swallow it whole. It's what they want to hear, because any alternative would demand that they get up off their collective asses and do something for their own retirement. Many of them aren't even aware of how the contract works - they think they'll just get back later what they pay now, with interest!

Yes, if we announce the obvious (the generation contract is dead!) it will mean that those who are in retirement now, or will retire in the next one or two decades at least, are in deep shit. But does anyone have a real solution? I have yet to hear one!

Granted that this is not the only problem Germany has today, but it gobbles up so much money that it contributes nicely to the depressing situation here. How much longer until the politicians who ignored the problem for decades finally (and shamefully) admit their mistake? How much longer until the only possible course of action is accepted?

Humans. Sheeple. Ostriches. Sometimes there's so little difference between those species it makes me want to puke.

(At least I actually thought about the problem, and invested the greater part of what I inherited after the death of my father into a nice investment fonds. Assuming a very conservative interest rate, that should gain me around € 5,000 per month when I finally retire in 30 years. Some will surely call me arrogant because I demand that others face a burden that doesn't concern me, but hey, the truth was out there to see long enough. It's not my fault if people love their precious blindfolds so dearly!)