ZUS is power

This post was written in consequence to the text by Jakub Dymek, which appeared on Substack and in the last issue of the weekly Review. I started writing it as a comment on the author's website, but it became besides long, so I extended it.

https://www.godekreview.pl/piramide-bzdur-emerital/

https://dymek.substack.com/p/zus-no-is-piramide-financial

The article by Jakub Dymek begins with this.

“The collection of beer bottles pays more than retirement,” says the most popular taxation advisor in Poland, Sławomir Mentzen. How is that possible? Well, that, according to Mentzen's calculations, the sum of all the premiums we quit in our life would be so low that we'd save more by getting bail from beer bottles. In order to prove his thesis, Mentzen sets out on the board contributions and estimated (or alternatively underestimated) retirement – “better to build a pyramid from bottles than to participate in the financial pyramid organized by ZUS”, he argues.

Mentzen's thought is not original, it's just an inept imitation like he himself. I remember, akin calculations were conducted almost 30 years ago by Janusz Korwin Mikke. At the time, they were rather sensible, and the fact of the current advantage of ZUS’s retirement over bottle is mainly due to changes in the bottle market, not to the improvement of ZUS.

The advisability of the Auditorium for the thought of liquidation of the Social safety Office does not consequence solely from the author's deficiency of cognition about the functioning of the pension strategy and susceptibility to populist slogans. Trust in ZUS is trust in the state, and both have been systematically destroyed since the transformation. First, the archives. papers from liquidated workplaces for decades yet went to state archives.

The full issue of archives clearly shows the attitude of fresh power towards people in Poland. After the solidarityists took over the power, which papers remained after the predecessors, did the fresh power consider it worth the care and storage? Are those documenting the traineeship and pension rights of citizens, or the Ubek folders giving them hooks?

We all know precisely how it happened and which papers proved so crucial that they are carefully stored. By the grace of solidarity at the outset of the fresh democratic Poland millions lost years and sometimes decades of retirement. Just like that, it was and there's nothing like the American bank. This undoubtedly greatly increased assurance in ZUS and the state pension system.That's erstwhile JKM spoke and wrote about the bottles, and then it was painful truth.

Few people remember that in those days ZUS had a financial surplus which Balcerowicz took without the slightest shame into the budget and threw into 1 of the many holes created by him. The fact that at least any of the proceeds from privatization should feed the pension strategy was rapidly stopped. ZUS finances were undermined, at the same time starting a systematic action of its depreciation in the eyes of people. abruptly the old strategy turned out to be inefficient. It operated for decades in a supposedly backward and inefficient "communist" economy, but in this modern and efficient economy it stopped working and it had to be changed. They have been devised in various ways to reduce the rate of replacement, that is, the amount of pension comparative to salary. It was expected to be essential due to the fact that ZUS's collapse was close and inevitable. All financial experts told about this without ceasing. Now we know that it was preparing the ground under OFE and it cannot be forgotten that this plundering strategy was besides mandatory and introduced by the state. It was. an excellent example of public-private partnershipsso praised by Benit Mussolini. And Jerzy Buzek, who gave us this misfortune, became president of the European Parliament as a reward for doing good to “financial institutions”.

Here we must give justice to the weekly Review, which at all times referred skeptically to the thought of OFE and made its cracks available to professionals specified as Prof. Leokadia Oręziak (OFE. Disaster of privatisation of pensions in Poland, Publishing Institute Book and Press, Warsaw 2014, Open pension funds – a threat to public finances and pensions in Poland, [in:] improvement determinants of Poland. Public Finance, technological Editor Stanisław Owsiak, Polish economical Society, 9th legislature of Polish Economists, Warsaw 2015).

As I have already written, trust in ZUS is trust in the state. The state pension means the susceptibility to the visions of power. Everyone saw what happened to the retirements of militias and services. The best thing for them is that they got fired right away, went to another occupation or started a company. The good, verified ones remained in good religion on work until retirement, and then the power showed them who the master was. Now any of them regain their powers after a court fight, but many have not. akin arguments as may then be utilized to rob another group of governments. The Democratic opposition will take over and punish the ugly writing officers at the applause of the crowds. It seems that breaking the continuity of Polish statehood has become the favourite amusement of post-solidarity governments. How could it be in this bad PRL that any of my grandparents' pensions were paid for pre-war work, in the capitalist second Poland?

It is worth remembering that the discussion on the advantages of various forms of protection for old age has been going on for a long time. The Anglo-Saxon strategy relied on the autonomy of individuals. 1 can briefly put it this way (unfortunately I don't remember the author, Dickens times):

If individual is not smart adequate to get to prison, let them starve.

There's a Prussian strategy on the another side. The ruler noted that workers working for a day's pay or a week's pay were incapable to put aside for old years and that the state had to aid them. With many modifications, this strategy has been adopted worldwide. It is not as bad as the Confederates would like, and both systems are not fault-free. In the state's main disadvantage is the susceptibility to the will of power. On the another hand, a pack of vultures lurk on their own, as James Dymek presented very successfully in his article. An eternal dilemma, freedom or security. ZUS is power, and we like power little and less. Subsequent years and events have shown that assurance in the safety government does not, so it is rather natural to effort to cut off from government institutions. In turn, own investment is hard work requiring qualifications. It is easier than an ant to be a grasshopper and enjoy extra cash.

The question of students, whether even students on pension systems, and even more so by telling them to choose, is abuse. At this age no 1 in his head thinks about old age or preparation for it, does not deal with economics and finances, unless a student of SGH. A good example of the fact that not only young people and day laborers can have problem putting up for old age is many Polish artists. Over the years they have functioned professionally on various fleeting contracts, paying only minimal contributions, and now empathize the audience with stories of the tallness (or alternatively low) of their pensions. This besides applies to many alleged entrepreneurs who are expected to know better. For years, they operated on quite a few money without saving anything. Apparently, they assumed business would go on forever. Forced by the strategy paid minimum contributions, they fled ZUS to KRUS, and now poverty.

And I think that's the main problem. Very many active people do not pay contributions or pay only the minimum. They are hired for various unusual contracts or rather without. A large proportion of them were forced by circumstances to open up one-man business. They don't have worker rights, and surviving from period to month, they don't put anything down. Paying a minimum premium, they rise a minimum pension. Working in black is seldom the choice of individual keeping a family. In fact, this has nothing to do with yielding to a populist slogan. This is the reality of Polish capitalism.