I got an email once about this-it seems that the Norwegian government has been very wise about providing for its citizen’s retirements. They have upwards to $1 trillion (from their North Sea oil profits) invested in a huge global stock fund-which will be used to pay retirement benefits for its elderly retired citizens.
Quite a contrast to the improvident USA-which intends to “fund” its citizens retirement by printing dollars.
Anyway, the implication was that Americans could somehow benefit from this fund-is this possible? It sounds impossible to me-why would the government of Norway open up a benefit plan to citizens of other countries?
A government pension fund is essentially an investment account owned by a sovereign state, I do not know how a private individual would gain shares in such an account.
It would be like investing in CALPERS directly, or something similar, I just don’t see how it is possible.
It wouldn’t shock me if there was an index fund out there in which the fund managers allocate assets to mirror the investment decisions of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, and drum up the government fund’s relative stability as a selling point.
Man, why am I paying SS tax if the US government doesn’t need it?!
Because the retired citizens of the US need it.