Salary Status of Retired Persons

Economics Courses During My Student Years:

I'm still in university. Our course is construction management, economy. We learn the basics. If the annual interest rate is this, how much will it be when the loan is repaid a year later, what will happen if we make equal payments every month, what will happen after this much time with such annual interest if we put money aside each month.

In this course, simple calculators are allowed in the exams, and there are tables of distributed coefficients, page-by-page tables showing the coefficients for all these individual cases I mentioned. You look at the interest rate, scan the relevant column or row and find the coefficient according to its duration. If you lost your eye, you got burned, wrong coefficient, wrong answer.

Actually, the formula for each table is certain, but there are too many tables and formulas.

Interest Calculations:

I have had a special interest in programming since computers came out. I have loved computers since I was studying at Kuleli Military High School. My simple Casio calculator that I owned at the time also had, I think, 46 digits of programmable memory. I don't remember the exact number now, if you want to do a transaction, you can save the results in 6 or 8 buffers. I sat and pondered a lot, I translated and translated the formulas myself, divided them into parts, and finally I was able to enter all the formulas into the short program memory of that simple machine. Now, when I entered the interest rate and the time, I could get the coefficients in all those pages full of tables from the memory it loaded. There was no risk of making mistakes.

At that time, we learned what interest is, what size savings increase over time.

Salary Payments and Pension Deductions:

We do not have a gross salary. In America, for example, it is understood with a gross salary, so we do not realize it, we do not care much, but because the wages we receive in working life are very low, the problem of living is always at the forefront. We only look at the money that goes into our net pocket. If we are not civil servants, we do not know the details, usually employers show the minimum wage we receive. That's why, in comparisons made with Europe on television talk shows, they say that the rate of people working with minimum wage is very high in Turkey. This is my guess, of course, if you ask for proof, I can't prove it, but I guess we all know that this is the case. As I said, since the net wage paid by the employer is the money that goes into our pocket, we don't care much about the rest.

I'm not a specialist, I looked at the tables I found on the internet, the minimum wage is actually calculated over the gross amount in accounting, the gross minimum wage is 5.004 TL this year. With the values ​​shown in the tables, the insurance premium rate paid from the gross salary of a person working with minimum wage for 2022 is 14%, with a fraction of 700.56 TL. The rate paid by the employer for the employee should actually be 20.5%, but a 5-point discount has been made, it is calculated with a rate of 15.5%, which amounts to 775.62 TL in fractions. I don't know who is paying the difference of 5 points or not. In total, a minimum wage earner actually deposits 1,476.18 TL as retirement premium to SGK every month as savings. I say every month, if you put it in the bank, a year later, a lot of money will accumulate in your account.

Are Employees Looking After Retirees?

They argue that our employees are looking after our retirees, sometimes I read news that the premiums collected from the employees are not enough for the retirees, there were news in the newspapers that the SGK went bankrupt.

It's all lies, pensions are savings for us employees. It must be. Today's employees are making a contribution for their retirement days, they are saving. Today, those who receive a pension are also spending the savings they made on time. That must be the logic.

Of course, only God knows what kind of money the premium payments made will accumulate over the years, and how much money they will receive today, may God grant everyone a long life, who will receive a salary for how many years, but how much pension this money will correspond to is calculated by experts. Even if we put aside the effects of inflation, bagel tea accounts, interests, etc., we would have saved 450,000 TL in 25 years by saving 1500 TL on a round account per month. This account is for someone who has always earned minimum wage throughout his working life. While the lower limit was 5,004 TL, which is the gross minimum wage, the upper limit was determined as 37,530 TL this year, I don't know if the rates for the premiums deposited are the same, there was no account where I looked, but the upper limit is 7.5 times the lower limit, that is, if we saved from the upper limit, it would be 3.375 in flat proportion. It's 0.000 TL. Good money for all of us I guess.

I did not take into account the decrease in purchasing power, inflation or anything like that, I calculated it over today's wages in order to see the rank.

Well, you know, unfortunately, inflation rates in our country are explained by manipulation. If there were real rates, maybe more accurate results would be found, but it is not that difficult to make these calculations. It comes out when you put it in the formula. In the past, the purchasing power was higher, the present value of the money saved may be much higher with real rates.

Can the State Pay Sufficient Payments to Pensioners?

It doesn't matter if we calculate one way or another. If the money saved is not enough for a welfare level pension, aren't we a social state, the state has to support it somehow.

This issue is solved differently in the world, there are pension funds. Funds do not only calculate with inflation rates. The money accumulated in the fund, yes, our premiums accumulate in the funds in normal countries, if you take into account all the employees and all these years of savings, it is an enormous monetary power. This money is used in countries like us where hot money is needed, or in world stock markets, in government bonds issued by various countries for borrowing, and by many other investment methods. As a result, incomes well above the inflation rates are obtained and these funds are distributed to the retirees as they deserve.

Status of Foreign Pensioners:

That's why, during the summer months, retired tourists from Europe and even Japan are swarming our coasts and touristic places. All of them live like human beings, have their holidays, can buy gifts for their grandchildren, they all have a full stomach.

These funds are managed by professional staff around the world. The result of professional management is obvious. To age like a human.

But is it like that with us? No, of course, our savings have already been spent somewhere, the safes have already been emptied, SGK manages with premiums that can be collected from existing employees, in this way it tries to pay the salaries of the retirees of the day, and that's it.

When the money accumulated in the fund is spent here and there by the state for other than its purpose, and when incompetent managers, unaccountable staff, crone-sergeant relations and civil servants are recruited to these institutions, this is all that happens.

Life for a Retiree in Turkey Shouldn't Be So Hard:

After all, we have retirees who say, "I wish I had died ten years ago, I had not seen these days". I was sorry for the situation of our retirees for a long time, even the deaf sultan heard that those who are most affected by the cost of living are our retirees.

But I did not expect such torture, when I watched the lady with the radiant face, my heart hurt, I cursed us, those who put this country in this state, those who made this word. If a person has these thoughts in retirement, it means that we have reached the end of the word.

Let's know this well, let's write it in our minds, let's never forget, even though we have fish memories, the salaries paid to our retirees are the money they have earned and saved with their own hard work. Not anyone else. It is not money that anyone, even those who run the state, gives as a gift to anyone. It is the own money of our retirees, it is as halal and right as the white milk of our mothers. No one has the right to spend this money as they please.

If we become conscious of this one day and realize this fact, maybe we will raise our voices against those who made the country this way, those who made that lady tired of life, and those who dared to waste our money. Maybe then they're afraid to even think about it, they won't be able to touch it again.

Again, a system problem, again an institution that should be independent. SSI is too serious an institution to be left to politicians. It should be managed by professional staff. It should be managed by cadres who will give account.

Our retirees do not deserve these days, nobody does.

Love and regards from Moscow