is this no country for old women or men?, page-6

Wooduk,
There are plenty of enlightened companies out there but we only hear about the bad ones.
Australia is suffering the same problems as many other countries. That is the baby boomer generation is woefully underfunded. Australian baby boomers have been amongst the worst when it came to saving money,.....most were happy to keep up with the Jones's and blow their savings on an annual trip to Bali or somewhere else. Many have been living beyond their capabilities and unfortunately many Australians of all ages feel some sense of entitlement often crying out .......I have paid taxes all my life. The problem now is that a large percentage of Australians pay no net tax after all the handouts are taken into account.Of course there were many genuine boomers that couldn't save and are now totally dependent on the pension. These people too need looking after.
Either way Govts of both persuasions are reluctant to increase taxes to alleviate this problem.
The answers are:
Australians need to become better savers and learn to be independent of Govt.
The Govt should eliminate all taxes on super contributions and profits in the fund at the accumulation phase.(we used to have the highest taxed retirement funding in the world before John Howard stopped taxing super pensions).Reversing the situation now would be a massive change and probably not possible. Other countries only tax the eventual super pension , not every step on the way through. No other countries mess around with the rules like we do every election/budget.
There needs to be greater contribution from employers, at least 16% of salary.
Finally, Govts need to increase income and corporate tax if Australians are to enjoy a well funded retirement.
I worked in Singapore for a while in the 1980's and companies contributed 28% of employees salary to their Singapore Provident Fund. This is called foresight, and I can assure you that our politicians have none.
So , I would not be counting on Govts to be of any help, and I would be working and saving above and beyond the my employers contribution.