> I really wish TechCrunch journalists would do a little more analysis of these claims instead of simply relaying the talking points of the startup’s CEOs and marketers.
These are paid articles. Most of techcrunch and other hype tech news site posts are fed by PR agencies in the background.
They get an article and list of quotes to include by a PR firm which they edit a little and post.
> not sure if most European countries have a pension-based system or not, but that's another thing to account for.
Even if they do have generous plan on paper, can they actually pay that 50 years in future?
Most won't. I know people from southern EU who haven't received what they were promised for pension and live in poverty today. It's only worse for future pensioners while they tax 25-30% in social security with no cap from your salary for pension and healthcare (You still need private coverage on top).
They also cut pension for people who saved money on side and accrued a livable amount ignoring their past contribution.
The size is not the same though. Not really comparable. You can have cheaper apartments for same sq in US outside of middle of the main cities which are bloated due to speculation and cheap mortgage.
Not GP, but here in Romania state mandated maternity leave is 2 years at low pay or 1 year at a higher pay (the mother can choose which she prefers). And yes, the company can't fire you for becoming pregnant or being on maternity leave (I believe there are exceptions, such as bankruptcy or significant down-sizing). The state pays some of the salary, but the company pays a portion as well. This applies to adoptions as well, but only for new-born babies.
Furthermore, fathers can also ask for paternal leave in the same conditions, also for up to 2 years. Only one of the parents may take this longer leave, but the parent that doesn't still has the right to 1 month of leave.
Even if the 1 month is not taken, fathers can still request 5 days of special leave for this (or 10 if they attend a child care course).
Note that while the pay you get for this period is based on your regular salary, it is typically capped at a fairly low level, so for high-paying positions it still represents a significant income loss.
Is your system sustainable though because romania is on top of defaulting on pension and welfare system in the europe?
Most young people are migrating outside the country for any skilled jobs, huge deficit & debt, and cutting back on the promised welfare doesn't sound good to me.
You have to consider long term sustainability and practical implication.
Nordic countries, switzerland, etc which are famous for welfare systems are funded by financial systems and oil. Other countries are not. Can they afford all these generous benefits?
Well, one of the Romanian welfare system's biggest long-term risks is low natality leading to an aging population. So, reducing benefits for new-born children seems penny wise but pound foolish.
Still, given that the welfare system is mostly financed out of current taxes, if the population can be stabilized (or even increased), it can be self-sustaining. We are not in a good place right now, but we were in a much worse place 10 or 20 years ago, so there are reasons to be hopeful things can be turned around.
Also, lots of people are leaving exactly because welfare is not good enough in the country (while the legal benefits are nice, often times the quality of the actual services is well below par). So again, I don't think reducing welfare will have a positive impact, in the longer term.
> one of the Romanian welfare system's biggest long-term risks is low natality leading to an aging population.
That is true for every welfare system based on social responsibility structure. Society pools money to pay for retirement of everyone at a fixed rate. Young people are entered into the system to fund old people's retirement today and promised that they would get funded by young people tomorrow.
This works as long as enough young people enter the system at intervals to continue the payouts except when that doesn't happen due to demographic collapse or some other reason. Think of a legal pyramid scheme.
> if the population can be stabilized (or even increased), it can be self-sustaining
Not necessarily. Many countries underestimated the life expectancy of people retired and had to run on a deficit as a result so they are taking money from pensioners of future today. They had to fix this by increasing the retirement age, cutting down benefits, removing benefits for people with private savings, etc.
They will only keep cutting. If not, it will fall.
> lots of people are leaving exactly because welfare is not good enough in the country
I see unemployment among youth as the major reason. Welfare won't be funded by unemployed.
> So again, I don't think reducing welfare will have a positive impact, in the longer term.
Reducing unsustainable welfare will because money can be used elsewhere to create jobs, attract businesses, increase employment, etc.
This might lower risk for the customers because driver may take less risk without a helmet in some situation but the risk for driver is only increased.
This is optimizing for customers at the cost of drivers.
I don't see any supportive extensive research linked from them .
In India, everyone has a phone even if they do not have a roof, bank account, proper 3 meals a day, etc. Bank accounts also require minimum balance, address and identity proof which is hard to get for some, local branch is necessary to open an account due to regulation and quality can vary wildly even for urban centres.
> In fact, the requirement that you need good internet speed for crypto to run locally means it's even harder for a place without infrastructure to participate.
Internet costs less than $2 for monthly unlimited data.
You can find 300-500 Mbps broadband in small towns of country where you won't find roads or basic hospitals.
This. So many people who dislike crypto also assume the world looks like the US - access to banking, trust in their government, trust in their central bank, access to international finance… If the entire world looked identical to the US then I can understand it’s not as useful. If the entire world ran on regional versions of M-Pesa…
