The thing is, sliding eligibility forward impacts relatively few people, so you might be able to pull it off. Means testing seems like the easy one: everyone hates rich freeloaders.

the transition is the hard part, but the gov has no problem doing a bit of printing when needed!

Increasing the age is a hard one, though, voters hate it, when France raised the retirement age from 62 to 64 the country basically lost its mind, millions protesting etc.

ahtough in fairness, the French do love a protest

stack_harder

> I'd set the means testing at median income or net worth: i.e. if you either earn more than an average income or have a greater than average net worth, you don't qualify.

I can see that we semi-independently reached the same place

denlillaapan

BlokchainB

transitioning all pensions to a 401k-type thing

That would be great, but they'd have to print the money to fill those accounts, precisely because current workers' "contributions" are going to the current retirees.

I've never thought this was a particularly difficult problem. Means testing + increasing age of eligibility are all you need. The element I would add is legal elder support requirements on families, similar to child support.

I'd set the means testing at median income or net worth: i.e. if you either earn more than an average income or have a greater than average net worth, you don't qualify.

Age of eligibility is actually sort of complex, because you can withdraw early or postpone until later. The way they do it is allowing prorated withdrawals designed to empty your balance by the time you die, with an earliest withdrawal age of 62. They should move that 62 up by one year every other year and base the life expectancy estimates on more generous models. That will lead to fewer people reaching withdrawal age and fewer outliving expectations.

The elder support requirement is the biggest change. Families with the means to support their parents and grandparents should be required to do so before taxpayers are required to do so.

AskSN

econ

How would you unwind the social security/ pension time bomb?

> transitioning all pensions to a 401k-type thing

That would be great, but they'd have to print the money to fill those accounts, precisely because current workers' "contributions" are going to the current retirees.

I've never thought this was a particularly difficult problem. Means testing + increasing age of eligibility are all you need. The element I would add is legal elder support requirements on families, similar to child support.

I'd set the means testing at median income or net worth: i.e. if you either earn more than an average income or have a greater than average net worth, you don't qualify.

Age of eligibility is actually sort of complex, because you can withdraw early or postpone until later. The way they do it is allowing prorated withdrawals designed to empty your balance by the time you die, with an earliest withdrawal age of 62. They should move that 62 up by one year every other year and base the life expectancy estimates on more generous models. That will lead to fewer people reaching withdrawal age and fewer outliving expectations.

The elder support requirement is the biggest change. Families with the means to support their parents and grandparents should be required to do so before taxpayers are required to do so.