Pension agency embezzled Y100 mil

[Taro Toporific]

[floatr][/floatr]


Pension agency workers embezzled Y100 mil in 1995-2006
Japan Today - Saturday, September 1, 2007 at 07:17 EDT
TOKYO ---Pension premiums, benefits and other funds embezzled by workers at the Social Insurance Agency totaled around 113 million yen in 26 cases in the 12-year period between 1995 and 2006, the government said Friday in a report...more...
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[INDENT]First, the Social Insurance Agency manages to "lose" 50 million pension-premium payment records, and now--SURPRISE--pension agency workers seem to have embezzled 100 million yen. Hmmm, do you think maybe there's a connection?:wink4: [/INDENT]

[Greji]

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[INDENT]First, the Social Insurance Agency manages to "lose" 50 million pension-premium payment records, and now--SURPRISE--pension agency workers seem to have embezzled 100 million yen. Hmmm, do you think maybe there's a connection?:wink4: [/INDENT]

If they found the embezzled 100 mil, it would apper the agency workers definately didn't "lose" enough records, or at least, "lose" the right records!

[fucked]

[Taro Toporific]

[james]

any pension fund is nothing more than a government sanctioned ponzi scheme. people should not be forced to pay into it. it's this thing called personal responsibility. fuck off - i'm not supporting your old ass because you didn't save / invest and pissed everything away.

[pheyton]

any pension fund is nothing more than a government sanctioned ponzi scheme. people should not be forced to pay into it. it's this thing called personal responsibility. fuck off - i'm not supporting your old ass because you didn't save / invest and pissed everything away.

Welcome to the "fuck you, I got mine society". If that is the kind of place you want to live in, please move back to the US where you really are on your own. Those types of societies turn on each other and become incredibly violent/crime ridden. That is why the Industrialized world ushered in pensions, Social Securities, etc. They provide stability in society.

[Gilligan]

Welcome to the "fuck you, I got mine society". If that is the kind of place you want to live in, please move back to the US where you really are on your own. Those types of societies turn on each other and become incredibly violent/crime ridden. That is why the Industrialized world ushered in pensions, Social Securities, etc. They provide stability in society.

Getting beyond your unsubstantiated broad-sweeping generalization, the problem with the whole pension / social security notion is the gap between the idealized intentions of the program and how the program is doomed to play out in reality.

The first problem is that the program is the brain-child of career politicians who either lack the ability to think creatively or have that ability beaten out of them by their colleagues; thus, their left to fall back on the same tired old useless gameplan--have the government syphon off funds from some people, keep a percentage to pay for the bloated beaurocracy that is believed to be necessary to run the program, and then re-distribute what is left to some other people. Once the number of people paying into the system becomes less than the number of people receiving benefits, the whole thing will collapse.

And the US social security system is a perfect example of why James refers to this set-up as a ponzi scheme. When initially implemented, the system was meant to cover only about 50% of the population. But as the ability to pay out has become more and more difficult, the number of people paying into the system has had to gradually increase.

I agree with you that governments owe it to their citizens to make sure they have some kind of safety net when they retire. I totally diagree with you that the best way to do that is using the money re-distribution model.

[james]

Welcome to the "fuck you, I got mine society". If that is the kind of place you want to live in, please move back to the US where you really are on your own. Those types of societies turn on each other and become incredibly violent/crime ridden. That is why the Industrialized world ushered in pensions, Social Securities, etc. They provide stability in society.

it's a lopsided intergenerational transfer of wealth managed by a bloated administration with a lot of sticky hands and little oversight. and it would seem it's also become a slush fund of sorts. the people of my generation are at or near the bottom of this grossly inverted pyramid, paying into a system that will be bankrupt by the time we reach retirment age, if not a whole lot sooner.

i don't want to change this into an inter-generational debate because i'd rather not put people into boxes based on age, but it just seems to me there is a majority in a certain generation out there that has had its fun in the sun and then some and expects everyone to keep paying for them.

this is an issue i feel strongly about. while i believe in a social safety net - especially with medical care - and limited welfare (everyone falls on hard times occasionally) i also believe in limits to government and this thing called personal responsibility. ie saving up for an emergency etc rather than pissing all one's money away for instant gratification just because one wants or is told they "deserve" something beyond their means.

as for "going back" to the u.s., unless my country has finally become the 51st state, that is not an option for me and one i'd sooner not exercise anyway.