Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

I am saying that even self-invested money can only yield returns paid by others. And only through a redistribution: It always comes from the current economy. Where else would it come from?

Ok - right. But that's always the case. Even if I buy gold, which I then put in a bank safe deposit box. OR if you buy a house that increases extremely in value. You can see what happens because of that.

But it’s simply about the fact that the pay-as-you-go pension system will no longer work in the long run..

The only solution I see is that all current retirees are paid from tax money and from now on everyone who is still working is responsible for their own pension. That is the fairest option for me. Or do you want to wait until everything collapses?

And then they get their money refunded or is it just a matter of being at the wrong age at the wrong time?

Until recently, I believe young people had very good chances and opportunities

In my opinion, the "tipping point" in the discussion is the topic of property. Between around 2010 and 2019, it was extremely good to build or acquire property. Interest rates kept falling, there were good subsidies, and prices lagged behind the boom rather than leading it. Until prices got so high that despite low interest rates and subsidies, the pool of buyers shrank. Then came Corona with supply shortages and prices exploding again, followed by the war and tripled interest rates. Mind you, interest rates are still not high, but they do not match the prices, which have since dropped but still remain at a high level. This is a dilemma that will last for a few years. As a young person, though, this feels like an eternity. The experience that things can turn around is also not yet there. In addition, there is an attitude of entitlement, wanting to be paid like a professional already at 25, after all one has studied for a long time. Well, you get certificate money from grandma, but not at the job. The certificate helps open the first doors, after that it depends on what you can do and what results/successes you can show. They do not want to hear that. By 27, the house has to be there.

I observe resignation among the youth. Understandable, but wrong.

I see it that way too. Yes, right now buying property is difficult. But if you bury your head in the sand and do not start building equity out of resignation, for example, you will not be able to buy again in 5, 7 or 10 years when things look better again.

We have built too much and will certainly downsize in a few years. But probably no longer in Germany.

Forgive me, but: blah blah. Complaining at a high level. Where is it better? Which foreign languages do you speak to consider countries other than German-speaking ones?

We no longer live in prosperity, the country is totally broken and is getting worse every day for various reasons.

OK, I think someone needs to break out of their cocoon and get a little taste of reality abroad.

OK I think someone needs to break out of their cocoon and get a little taste of reality abroad.

The user doesn't get along well with foreigners… :rolleyes:

But it is simply about the fact that the pay-as-you-go pension system will no longer work in the long run..

Correct. It has not worked for years, because currently 120 billion EUR are already going from taxes into pensions in order to finance them at all.

The pension has long since not been "pay-as-you-go," at least not if one understands that retirees are paid from the pension insurance contributions of the employees.

Everyone finances the pension through taxes. That was not its original idea.

(...)
OK I think someone has to break out of their cocoon and get a little taste of reality abroad.

Here I have to ask critically again. Which abroad do you mean? Sweden? Norway? I hang around there a lot and they are actually better off than us. Or they feel better, whatever.

In France, people retire at the latest at 60, in the railway usually already in their mid-50s.

In Italy, the weather is good and people get their new heating 110% financed by the state.

Ok, if we look at Senegal, then it gets sad. But the countries around us are not as bad as we like to tell ourselves here on our Prussian horse.