Sir, – Your columnist Pat Leahy states that to pay for pensions “people will inevitably have to work longer” (“Irish workers are going to have to work for longer. Politicians should face up to this”, August 30th).
This is not an inevitability. It is a political decision. And an easy one to make that does not impact the decision makers.
There is no economic law that says increased life expectancy equals an increased working life. Governments can increase the proportion of national income transferred from workers to pensioners instead.
In fact, Ireland has been already adopting this route.
RM Block
Productivity increases are also a way to generate more wealth from the same working population to support retirees.
Notwithstanding that, tackling the large inequality between public and private pensions will require political courage of a type yet to emerge.
The question we need to ask ourselves is, do we want an American “work till you die” society or a more just one that may mean having a little less during your working life so you can look forward to retirement?
The time to make that decision is now while we have a productive young workforce and a strong economy. – Yours, etc,
SIMON BLAKE
Munich,
Germany.
