IIn today’s socio-political discussions, there are only a handful of topics as complex and complicated as how the pension system will be sustainable and intergenerational in the future. The “financial literacy” research conducted in Germany, that is, the ability to deal with financial problems, shows that many people have problems with the evaluation of financial products and the way financial markets operate.
This shows that only a small number of people have seen through the pension issue and can make a difference to the party’s proposal. A hallmark of our time is that the world we live in is rapidly becoming more complex and increasingly opaque to individuals. The complexity needs to be reduced so that citizens can rationally vote on the best design possible in the future.
Narrative plays a central role, that is, simple stories are reduced to basic elements and complex relationships are expressed in an understandable way. People rely on political narratives because they provide them with direction and help them make decisions in otherwise unmanageable situations.
Norbert Bloom’s narrative obscures the state of pension insurance
There are good and bad narratives, depending on whether they are simplified or distorted.In the history of statutory pensions, the narrative has a long history Norbert Blooms Dominates and consists of the simple sentence “Pension is safe!” The more obvious the demographic change, the more this narrative obscures the real situation, rather than a meaningful simplification of the situation.
Its weakening power led to heated discussions in the 1990s, which gave birth to a new narrative. This has an attractive name: “Ristor Pension”. It is related to the story that you can no longer rely on the statutory pension alone, you must save yourself in order to be taken care of in your old age. The state helps ensure this success, so this is a punchline.
This story was very successful at first. Many people have signed Lister’s contract, but the complexity of the subject has caught up with them. The products offered by the financial world to depositors are often not only complex but also opaque. They are also often at a disadvantage economically because their investment has only received low returns, and subsidies have been used up by excessive closure and management costs.
Today, List represents risk and lack of transparency
The narrative appears in social communication, where Lister’s contract no longer enjoys a good reputation there. The content of the narrative has changed. Today, “Rist” represents risk and lack of transparency, and the punch line is that it is best not to do it. Organizing a reform that will be accepted under the old label seems hopeless. You will not be able to change the content of Lister’s narrative in a positive way. The new approach to pension policy requires a new narrative.
Relying on the concept of “Deutschlandrente”, we submitted a proposal in 2015 to address both the supply and demand sides of the personal market pension considering. On the demand side, the core problem we diagnose is that the willingness to consciously handle their retirement reserves is low. On the one hand, this is a manifestation of high complexity. On the other hand, people avoid making decisions that will definitely incur costs today but highly uncertain future returns.
