The creditors are insisting that Greece adopt “a ‘zero deficit’ system that would end budget subsidies for the pension system”. It is worth noting that a ban on the state budget subsidising the pension insurance system, if it were applied in Germany, would almost immediately bankrupt the system. Very substantial sums are pumped into the German pension insurance system by the federal government every year. And, in principle at least, there is no reason why this should not be the case. The provision of some pension entitlements can be seen as a task for society as a whole, and thus financed out of general taxation, rather than just by those … Continue reading Andrew Watt