The Old Are Eating the Young

Re:The Old Are Eating the Young by kgwgk on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @03:02AM (#14551115)

I think his point is that he avoids paying high taxes by not earning much.

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Re:The Old Are Eating the Young by danbolt on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @03:18AM (#14551172)

Do other people feel this way in regards to social benefits?

At least in my line of work, earning more money has much higher value than earning less and having assistance.

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Re:The Old Are Eating the Young by arpa on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @03:56AM (#14551276)

Sure, earning money is nice, but consider this: you are just throwing 30-50% of your income away. When increase of 100% means 200% more effort, because you're throwing away 50%, you really start considering if the effort's worth it.

Also, at least where I live, we have our benefits capped. So I pay taxes proportionally to my income, but god forbid I get sick, get in accident, lose my job or have a child and take a child rearing leave - even though I've been paying full taxes >10 years, i get instant income cut by 50%. And don't get me started about pension - currently it's set at 75 years for males - and average lifespan is about 70...

So, to sum up, while earning more money, sure, is nice, but throwing the money you've earned fair and square down the drain to support society which will simply not support you is disheartening to say the least.

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Re:The Old Are Eating the Young by indeedy on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @07:13AM (#14551901)

fair and square

And in those three simple words we encapsulate all of humanity's woes

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Re:The Old Are Eating the Young by an27 on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @04:07AM (#14551319)

Hold on, your country has separate pension ages for each gender?

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Re:The Old Are Eating the Young by markvdb on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @03:35AM (#14551218)

An example from Belgium. Imagine you're an employee and earning 38k€ a year including bonuses. Now you want to start a side activity as an independent contractor. You pay about 53.5% of taxes on this amount. On what is left after taxation, you pay 20.5% social contributions that you get literally nothing in return for. If you choose the cheapest "social contributions" provider. That means you get to keep about 36.96€ for every 100€ in pretax profit.

Don't you think this steers people in different directions?

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Re:The Old Are Eating the Young by ENGNR on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @04:17AM (#14551352)

Wouldn't the equivalent contractor wage factor those costs in though, plus a risk premium for short term work ideally

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Re:The Old Are Eating the Young by jpttsn on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @06:19AM (#14551710)

What makes you think it would?

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Re:The Old Are Eating the Young by RugnirViking on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @07:19AM (#14551933)

The fact that they have to actually hire people for the position, and therefore need a decent value proposition?

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Re:The Old Are Eating the Young by jpttsn on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @11:21AM (#14553381)

When the costs of hiring for the position are much higher, "need to hire" can start to look fuzzy. Just like the "need to buy a soda" is different at $2 and $20. Demand for labor is at least somewhat elastic.

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Re:The Old Are Eating the Young by ido on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @03:41AM (#14551234)

It really depends on where on the range of earnings you are. In Germany earning minimum wage nets you virtually the same amount of money as being chronically unemployed (when taking into account various benefits, like social housing and free transit for the unemployed).

And the benefits are regular and safe relative to a lot of badly paid work opportunities (especially they are not a regular full time job).

I don't think this makes as much sense as e.g. a programmer earning €50k/year vs €80k (especially if you're married with kids, which gives you huge tax deductions here).

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