> In countries with state pensions, some of the taxes are saving for retirement.
It's only saving for the retirement of government workers at the expense of the private sector. That's pretty clearly theft. There should be absolutely no government programs give benefits to only government workers paid for by non-government workers. You're basically robbing Peter to pay Paul.
But people who work for the government are, separately, entitled to have an employer-run pension scheme which pays some of their income as deferred compensation in a pension scheme. I don't think it would be more efficient to insist that they take out a private retirement scheme (is this "401k" in US-speak?) and then have to pay them more in the present in order to fund it.
It's only saving for the retirement of government workers at the expense of the private sector. That's pretty clearly theft. There should be absolutely no government programs give benefits to only government workers paid for by non-government workers. You're basically robbing Peter to pay Paul.