this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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Denmark is set to have the highest retirement age in Europe after its parliament adopted a law raising it to 70 by 2040.

The retirement age at 70 will apply to all people born after 31 December 1970.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 hours ago

And then they have the audacity to ask, “Why is no one having kids?” - This is why!! Why would we ever bring a child into this world to work from 21-70 years old!?(I know that some start working at a younger age.) That’s human slavery! And don’t get me started with the slave wage pay. This is absolutely appalling and euthanasia is gonna be a hit. People will off themselves or have someone end their lives and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

The essential problem is that the people working now are paying for the people that are retired. It would make more sense for the gov't to have taxed the people prior to their retirement, and have invested those taxes, so that in their retirement they would be getting out what they had previously paid in. And switching over to a system like that would require double taxation on the population now, which will make such a proposal very unopopular.

But if your retired population is growing, and you have fewer people working, then you either need to increase the retirement age--so that more people are paying into the system--or increase the taxation overall. If I recall correctly, Denmark has been seeing a negative population growth; that's a real problem for retirement schemes that rely on current taxes paying for retirees.

Is this fair to people that have been working in trades and have beaten up their body for 40 years? No. Likewise, it's not really fair to people that have working in white-collar jobs that may still be more than capable of excelling at their job, and still want to work. (My dad had mandatory retirement at 72 due to company policy; he immediately got re-hired as an on-site consultant, and has been doing that for over a decade.)

EDIT - this is a huge problem in the US. The social security taxes now on working people are immediately paid out to retirees. SS benefits go up to account for inflation, but the amount coming in is decreasing because population growth has slowed. Without major reforms, social security in the US won't be solvent by the time I retire, IF I ever retire.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

The government should have been taxing the Corporations that made enormous profits from the surplus value their employees generate and then requiring said Corporations to invest annually in pensions matched to Cost-of-Living indexes.

In the US, instead we got 401ks so the poors are required to cheer the stock market and pretend they're temporarily embarrassed Capitalists, rather than the scornful reality of being wage-slaves.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Denmark has been seeing a negative population growth; that's a real problem for retirement schemes that rely on current taxes paying for retirees

And they're particularly xenophobic, so no immigration to beef up the numbers

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, we're doing the same in the US... :(

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

Thank god in the Netherlands we are not and we did not elect a far right party as the biggest party, oh wait...

I hostely fear for the next 5 years, with far right (and anti science, anti woke, anti freedom, anti any progressive idea people had after 1950s) gaining more traction.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The bigger problem here is that people above 50 are having very low, nearly impossible chances of finding a job if they lose one, especially with rise of AI. These people can't have a job, and now can't have a pension.

Well done, governments around the world.

EDIT: If I'm getting this right, people of Denmark can start taking out pension prior to retirement, so might not be too catastrophical.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (2 children)

At the same time, politicians here in Denmark can retire at 60! Those fuckers get free housing, free transport, free food, AND after-pay. "Rules for thee, not for me!"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

They should be bound by the same rules as the rest of us.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

If only they'd also be forced to retire at 60. Instead they stay in politics and continue to make decisions based on outdated knowledge and ideals.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

If they didn’t get all those benefits everyone might be able to retire earlier.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Yes, they're going to die sooner anyway. Forced retirement at 60 for politicians would be perfect.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The main economically meaningful aspects of "retirement age" in Denmark AFAIK is that:

  • You get entitled to receiving the public, state-paid pension.
  • Private pension schemes that vest at this point or later are tax deductible. (you still pay taxes when it's paid out, but due to the progressive tax code you end up paying less)

By far the most relevant of the two is the latter, as practically everyone is covered by pension schemes included in employment contracts.

As such you can still retire any time you want, but it will be more burdensome for you to it earlier than at the age sanctioned by law.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

In the US medicaid starts at 65, but you can get lucky and have workplace pension that start early. You only get "full retirement" with Social Security/state pension if you wait until 67 and many wait until then. Which seems similar to Denmark.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

No, it means only people with good pensions can retire early. Incidentally, this is by design those with high wages since these are the basis of earning pension. However, the ones that may actually need to retire early due to the stress of hard menial labor are not in this group of high earners.

In effect we will see people at offices doing easy work close their pcs and have an office retirement party at an age of 65 that poor Olga of 70 years (or more) will have to clean up.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Having relatives that died when they were 70 and seeing stuff like this is quite depressing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

That’s sort of the goal of retirement, you aren’t supposed to live that long afterwards

It’s not a vacation, it’s a “we will take care of you once you can no longer put money into the machine as long as you spent your life taking care of other people who could no longer put money into the machine”

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

My ex's grandma slept 5 hours a night, worked a full time seamstress job and cooked and cleaned and raised her kids and grandkids. She enjoyed just 1 year of retirement before Covid hit.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

Yeah, we need to make sure to live our life now and do what we want. Work less, live below our means to save up, take a chance and travel or whatever it is one wants to do, if we are able to. Don't postpone it. I'll live my life as if I won't get a retirement at all.

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