Enlarge image
Senior on a park bench: will future generations have to wait even longer for retirement?
Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa
The fact that Lars Feld advocates a higher retirement age for the statutory pension is already known from his time as a so-called economist in the Federal Government's Advisory Council.
He was its chairman until he left almost a year ago.
The Freiburg economist has recently been Finance Minister Christian Lindner's (FDP) personal economic adviser, and although the traffic light coalition has agreed not to touch the retirement age, Feld is sticking to his demand that the start of retirement should be linked to increasing life expectancy.
That's what the economist of Die Zeit said.
“During my time on the Advisory Council, we did the calculations several times.
At most, you would end up with a retirement age of 70 years,” Feld said.
This is necessary so that the pension system “remains financially stable after 2029”.
In concrete terms, such a coupling could look like the one proposed by the Munich pension expert Axel Börsch-Supan: If people live three years longer on average, the retirement age should be increased by two years.
The additional lifetime would thus be split two to one between the payment phase and the payment phase of the pension.
But the new Lindner consultant is not only in favor of pensions that many citizens might find unreasonable.
In the debate on climate protection, Feld calls for higher carbon pricing.
»The last federal government already introduced such a CO₂ price, but it should only rise slowly.
The traffic light could have been more ambitious here," said Feld.
When it was introduced in 2021, a tonne of CO₂ cost 25 euros, this year 30 euros, and by 2025 this price is set to rise gradually to 55 euros.
Feld was also open to concessions on the reform of the Stability Pact.
»Realistically, Italy will not be able to reduce its debt ratio in the way that EU rules dictate.
That's why you could grant temporary relief for debt reduction, maybe for five to ten years," said the Lindner consultant to "Zeit".
A new version of the pact is currently being negotiated in Brussels.
Highly indebted countries such as Italy and France are aiming for easing.
For an agreement, however, everyone would have to move, the economist demands: »By the way, a compromise means that both sides get something.
It is unacceptable for some countries to be given relief again and again without them being willing to do something.« The problem is above all France, says Feld: »We have to see that the debts there are reduced in a more binding manner.«
fdi
