There is something wrong about the narrative...
You know this kind of graphic, right? The population pyramid. And I do have a problem with it.
No, not with the pyramid itself. The pyramid is okay and valid. It just shows how the population looks in regards to age. No, my problem is with the narrative around it: "The pyramid is top-heavy and now the pension and care does not work anymore!!"
Technically this is wrong. And yes, the pyramid originally was exactly about that. About showing how the work done by the young people would pay into the system, so that old people could retire at some point and get care. Because originally, of course, we needed that bottom-heavy pyramid to make sure that there were enough people to do all the important work and take care of older people reliant on care.
Only... that it really is not true anymore, right? It more is like... it is just again the system being broken. Because capitalism sucks.
Let me address the two supposed problems with the entire pyramid and what not: 1) "Who is gonna pay for it?" and 2) "Who is going to do the care work?"
Who is gonna pay for the retirement?
See, the theory over here in Germany is technically that during your work time you pay into the social security net and should get back later what you paid in. But, obviously, you technically do not just save up for your own retirement. The money you pay into social security right now gets paid out to the people currently receiving their retirement benefits.
Hence the problem: When more people are on retirement benefits, while fewer people pay into the social security, the math does not work.
But... Like literally all problems related to people suffering from poverty (like a lot of old people are doing) it could be easily solved by redistributing the immense wealth of the super rich. Literally nobody needs to have more than 1 billion dollars. Heck. Nobody really needs more than 10 million, if we are really honest.
And no, giving that money to the rich does in fact not help the economy, if we are going by pro-capitalist logics. Redistributing the wealth, does.
Really, we do not even need retirement funds, if we just gave out UBI for everyone. (Or went communist.)
And that we can finance by taxing the rich. Also taxing any sort of stock trading.
But who is going to do the care work?
See, here is the other issue, where just capitalism is the problem. Because technically there is not a lack of people who would be able to do the care work and would be willing to do it, if only the jobs in care work would be a) fairly compensated and b) actually respected in society.
See, when we look at the job market today, we see in fact a lot of "bullshit jobs", as David Graeber calls it in his book by the same name. Meaning: Jobs that produce nothing of societal value. Jobs, that society could do well without and that quite often aim to enforce the hierarchies of capitalism. Literally.
Hence, heck, even if we had too few people to work in care (something that technically really is not true), we could easily just get rid of those kinds of jobs. In general there are a lot of jobs that only exist to give the appearance of keeping people busy. (The story of why the 40 hour work week is bullshit is a story for another day.)
But yeah, the reason why most people are kept away and pushed out of the care industry is just how underpaid and overworked everyone there is.
See, caring for people is actually something that many people find fulfilling. But not under those circumstances. So, better the circumstances and you will have enough folks to work in care.
So, yeah. Whenever someone keeps whining about "top heavy pyramids" just tell them: "The problem is not birth rates. The problem is capitalism."
