Sunday 5 December 2010

Thought of the day: Are pensions bad?

So some of you know that I'm a BIG BIG BIG fan of small government. In sum, I think that the Government should concentrate on security (protecting people's property) and justice (punishing the evildoer). There are lots of practical reasons for this view but the key one for me is that Scripture (which should be our primary and final authority in all of life) doesn't seem to indicate that the Government has any business poking its fingers in things not security and justice. So there I was with my somewhat 'extreme' views minding my own business when I came across the following



Which got my mind thinking - when exactly did the idea of pensions as they are widely understood today originate? Now as you know, such a question requires a reliable and credible source of knowledge so where best to turn than that great font of knowledge - Google! Here, I discovered, that the pension system we're familiar with today is only 102 years old! In fact if we were to be properly accurate we would have to say the modern state pension is more like 62 years given that it was tagged on to Sir William Bevereidge's beastly creation, the NHS (but that's another story!)

My question for now is, where in the Scriptures is the State exhorted to take money from its citizens so as to provide care once we're in retirement?

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