Germany set to tax young

April 6, 2012

GERMANY is proposing to levy extra taxes on the young to pay for the costs of the country's growing numbers of old people, under government plans for a ''demographic reserve'' levy.

Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats have drafted proposals that, if law, would require all those over 25 to pay a proportion of their income to cushion Germany against a looming population crisis.

The German Chancellor's ruling party is seeking extra sources of revenue to pay for soaring pensions and bills for social care costs as Germany's ''baby boomer'' generation ages amid a decline in the birth rate.

The proposals, to be adopted by Dr Merkel's party cabinet after the Easter break, have not yet set a figure on the age tax but officials are considering a special levy of about 1 per cent of income.

Because of a slump in Germany's population, as more ageing Germans retire there are fewer young workers to replace them as taxpayers to fund generous welfare and pension arrangements.

Estimates from Germany's federal employment agency predict that the workforce will be reduced by 7 million people by 2025.

''We have to consider the time after 2030 when the baby boomers of the '50s and '60s are retired and costing us more in health and care costs,'' said Gunter Krings, who drafted the Christian Democrat position paper.

who is this guy, Mel Gibson?

It's not exactly a secret that ObamaCare is a wealth transfer from the young to the old.

^ The mandate will fall heavily on the young who often choose to forgo insurance and spend/save their money for other things (I used to be one of them). And since young people tend to be healthier than older people, mandating that they buy insurance that most of them wonג€™t need will not benefit most of them.

At any rate, I dubt that ObamaCare will stand the test of time regardless of what SCOTUS says in June.

By outlawing their own preferred solution to the health care problem, they're essentially guaranteeing that a single payer system will be the only legal way to solve the health care problem.

who is this guy, Mel Gibson?

Emphasis mine. Slow down.

The Cato Institute is not the sole voice of the republican party.

Yep, not just the Cato Institute. You're forgetting the Heritage Foundation, the soon-to-be Republican nominee, and two federal health care bills sponsored and primarily supported by Republicans.

It is incredibly asinine to claim that until 2008 the individual mandate was not almost exclusively a republican idea with republican support in this country.

Either way though, if this gets struck down I will gladly put money on us ending up with a single payer or two-tier single payer system. We'll have Republicans to thank for that. We can blame the G.O.P. or the tea party that has driven them so far to the right, but either way, it will be Right which brought us up to the first world standard of national coverage (through an idea borrowed from Germany, South Korea, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland etc., or through cutting off their nose to spite their face).

who is this guy, Mel Gibson?

He is your standard fare RINO.

Yeah, I'm just pointing out that for the most part the old are already being insured. This is most beneficial to the young (kids 0+ who live in red states that are too backwards to pay into medicaid). If anyone is getting screwed it's almost exclusively 27-35 (or so) olds who are 1) self-employed and 2) choose not to be insured.

Even for them, it's the most gentle screwing of all time, as the "mandate" is essentially unenforced, particularly for this group.

Yeah, one has to be insured to make this argument (and I am), but in some ways I hope the right is dumb enough to strike this down. By outlawing their own preferred solution to the health care problem, they're essentially guaranteeing that a single payer system will be the only legal way to solve the health care problem. One has to be incredibly partisan and has to have his/her head incredibly deep in the sand to think 1) health care isn't a problem and 2) to not realize the bed they're making and the options they're restricting by outlawing this.

Basically, if this gets struck down, it will take an economic catastrophe the likes of which we've never seen before for us not to be under a single payer system in the next 8-16 years. The funny part is that we'll have Republicans to thank for it too.