Do you hear that rumble in the distance? That is the Baby Boomers - they are getting ready to retire. On January 1st, 2011 the very first Baby Boomers turn 65. Millions upon millions of them are rushing towards retirement age and they have been promised that the rest of us are going to take care of them. Only there is a huge problem. We don't have the money. It simply isn't there. But the millions of Baby Boomers getting ready to retire are counting on that money to be there. This all comes at a really bad time for a federal government that is already flat broke and for a national economy that is already teetering on the brink of disaster.
So just who are the Baby Boomers? Well, they are the most famous generation in American history. The U.S. Census Bureau defines the Baby Boomers as those born between January 1st, 1946 and December 31st, 1964. You see, after U.S. troops returned from World War II, they quickly settled down and everyone started having lots and lots of babies. This gigantic generations has transformed America as they have passed through every stage of life. Now they are getting ready to retire.
If you add 65 years to January 1st, 1946 you get January 1st, 2011.
The moment when the first Baby Boomers reach retirement age has arrived.
The day of reckoning that so many have talked about for so many years is here.
Today, America's elderly are living longer and the cost of health care is rising dramatically. Those two factors are going to make it incredibly expensive to take care of all of these retiring Baby Boomers.
Meanwhile, the sad truth is that the vast majority of Baby Boomers have not adequately saved for retirement. For many of them, their home equity was destroyed by the recent financial crisis. For others, their 401ks were devastated when the stock market tanked.
Meanwhile, company pension plans across America are woefully underfunded. Many state and local government pension programs are absolute disasters. The federal government has already begun to pay out more in Social Security benefits than they are taking in, and the years ahead look downright apocalyptic for the Social Security program.
If we are not careful all of these Baby Boomers are going to push us into national bankruptcy. We simply cannot afford all of the promises that we have made to them. The following are 16 statistics about the coming retirement crisis that will drop your jaw.....
#1 Beginning January 1st, 2011 every single day more than 10,000 Baby Boomers will reach the age of 65. That is going to keep happening every single day for the next 19 years.
#2 According to one recent survey, 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything at all to retirement savings.
#3 Most Baby Boomers do not have a traditional pension plan because they have been going out of style over the past 30 years. Just consider the following quote from Time Magazine: The traditional pension plan is disappearing. In 1980, some 39 percent of private-sector workers had a pension that guaranteed a steady payout during retirement. Today that number stands closer to 15 percent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C.
#4 Over 30 percent of U.S. investors currently in their sixties have more than 80 percent of their 401k invested in equities. So what happens if the stock market crashes again?
#5 35% of Americans already over the age of 65 rely almost entirely on Social Security payments alone.
#6 According to another recent survey, 24% of U.S. workers admit that they have postponed their planned retirement age at least once during the past year.
#7 Approximately 3 out of 4 Americans start claiming Social Security benefits the moment they are eligible at age 62. Most are doing this out of necessity. However, by claiming Social Security early they get locked in at a much lower amount than if they would have waited.
#8 Pension consultant Girard Miller recently told California's Little Hoover Commission that state and local government bodies in the state of California have $325 billion in combined unfunded pension liabilities. When you break that down, it comes to $22,000 for every single working adult in California.
#9 According to a recent report from Stanford University, California's three biggest pension funds are as much as $500 billion short of meeting future retiree benefit obligations.
#10 It has been reported that the $33.7 billion Illinois Teachers Retirement System is 61% underfunded and is on the verge of complete collapse.
#11 Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Chicago and Joshua D. Rauh of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management recently calculated the combined pension liability for all 50 U.S. states. What they found was that the 50 states are collectively facing $5.17 trillion in pension obligations, but they only have $1.94 trillion set aside in state pension funds. That is a difference of 3.2 trillion dollars. So where in the world is all of that extra money going to come from? Most of the states are already completely broke and on the verge of bankruptcy.
#12 According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Social Security system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes in 2010. That was not supposed to happen until at least 2016. Sadly, in the years ahead these "Social Security deficits" are scheduled to become absolutely horrific as hordes of Baby Boomers start to retire.
#13 In 1950, each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 U.S. workers. In 2010, each retiree's Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 U.S. workers. By 2025, it is projected that there will be approximately two U.S. workers for each retiree. How in the world can the system possibly continue to function properly with numbers like that?
#14 According to a recent U.S. government report, soaring interest costs on the U.S. national debt plus rapidly escalating spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare will absorb approximately 92 cents of every single dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019. That is before a single dollar is spent on anything else.
#15 After analyzing Congressional Budget Office data, Boston University economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff concluded that the U.S. government is facing a "fiscal gap" of $202 trillion dollars. A big chunk of that is made up of future obligations to Social Security and Medicare recipients.
#16 According to a recent AARP survey of Baby Boomers, 40 percent of them plan to work "until they drop".
Companies all over America have been dropping their pension plans in anticipation of the time when the Baby Boomers would retire. 401k programs were supposed to be part of the answer, but if the stock market crashes again, it is absolutely going to devastate the Baby Boomers.
State and local governments are scrambling to find ways to pay out all the benefits that they have been promising. Many state and local governments will be forced into some very hard choices by the hordes of Baby Boomers that will now be retiring.
Of course whenever a big financial crisis comes along these days everyone looks to the federal government to fix the problem. But the truth is that after fixing crisis after crisis the federal government is flat broke.
At our current pace, the Congressional Budget Office is projecting that U.S. government public debt will hit 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080.
But our politicians just keep spending money. In order to pay the Baby Boomers what they are owed the federal government may indeed go into even more debt and have the Federal Reserve print up a bunch more money.
So in the end, Baby Boomers may get most of what they are owed. Of course it may be with radically devalued dollars. Already we are watching those on fixed incomes being devastated by the rising cost of food, gas, heat and health care.
What is going to happen one day when prices have risen so much that the checks that our seniors are getting are not enough to heat their homes?
What are we going to do when those on fixed incomes are buying dog food because it is all that they can afford?
We are rapidly reaching a tipping point. As the first Baby Boomers retire the system is going to do okay. But as millions start pouring into the system the truth is that it is going to start breaking down.
No, there is not much that we can do about it now. We should have been planning for all of this all along. Americans should have been saving for retirement and governments should have been setting money aside.
But it didn't happen.
Now we pay the price.
Another well researched and informative article. Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Please do NOT follow the deadly ‘austerity measures’ like Greece et al are killing each other over, as the answer to this lie upon lie ad nauseum!!
This and previous admins have given trillions to the world bank, IMF, UN etc etc..
They have supported both sides of every war for generations and now have a worldwide military industrial war complex losing billions per month!!
You better wake up and smell the Truth and maybe you will be set free!!
Please do NOT call us part if the ‘entitlement’ crowd of non productive deadbeats who get Fed bucks, we are the boomers who not only built this nation but spilled our blood doing so,
Infowars.com might do you alot of good!!
Remove the income cap and tax all income and capital gains for those making over a certain amount. It is a crime that hedge fund managers only pay 15% on capital gains when they should be taxed much higher. Also means test-the rich get nothing even though they will need to be taxed a lot more to support it. I could care less if the rich like this or not.
Until we address the banana republic levels of wealth, power, and income inequality nothing will ever be fixed. That wealth/power inequality is the root of the problem. I think in the near future lots of folks will be demanding we tax the rich and spread the wealth. The disparity is so great that even the dumbest among us can see it is a problem. To the right wing goofs who don’t like this, too bad. We have numbers on our side. The poorer more people get the better chance the rich will be taxed hard. It is inevitable.
I also think it was pretty selfish of the greatest generation to have so many kids. I hardly consider them the greatest generation.
“Hope I die before I get old…”
This is the biggest rip off in history coming. As the boomers paid into all the Union and private pensions and Social Security there was more money than the administrators have ever planned on or seen before. They were swimming in money. And they didn’t save it – they wasted it away. If you watched the Teamsters in the early 80′s they had at least two Presidents in a row sent to prison for getting their hands caught in the pension cookie jar and filling their pockets.
Baby boomers are coming and like anything else, this will change the way things have been done in the past. We will be pissed off. We have watched everyone from politicians to Wall Street dancing on our dime. Giving our retirement money to drugged out idiots, and to the illegal immigrants has been a slow burn.
We have watched our parents smug with a retirement that we will never have all on what we were paying into the system. That is why they are slowing imploding the economy – the party is over and they don’t have anything left and they know it.
Freedom is another word for nothing left to lose. Why do you think the Government is getting ready for our anger? They know their propaganda program isn’t working.
I know a lot of Boomers my age (58) that have no retirement savings – ZERO. And some of them will not qualify for very much more than the minimum monthly Social Security payment. These folks are going to be in a world of serious financial pain.
For those who have 401Ks loaded up with overvalued stocks, just who do you think you are going to sell your stocks to when you need money each month? Graduating college students with no jobs and hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loan debt? I don’t think so.
Oops! I think the folks who are lucky enough to have a large 401K balance are going to see a 65% haircut in the stock market as soon as they start trying to cash out their 401Ks en masse.
My guess is that only 15% of Boomers are going to enjoy a comfortable retirement. About half of the Boomers are going to be able to buy $25,000 condos in Florida and Arizona. They will be sending half their Social Security checks to the electric company each month to pay for their air conditioning. The remaining third of the Boomers are going to be living in flophouses and eating in soup kitchens or begging for cat food or dog food.
The baby-boomers were the ones in charge in the run-up of the current financial mess we find ourselves. They broke the system without our permission and it is only fair for them to pay the consequences without our help.
Every retired person collecting social security should be absolutely GRATEFUL and RESPECTFUL of every young working person!
And you know why? Because we are supporting their lazy asses in vacationing homes by our 10% SS taxes taken every time from our paychecks!
The Baby Boomers will push us into bankruptcy? WTF? Who are you trying to indoctrinate here with this senseless BS? I am shocked you would say that. We already are broke, the elites have stolen the wealth for decades upon decades. Baby Boomers my friggin a*s!
Don’t blame the boomers. The criminals in the US Congress saw this huge wave of boomers coming, and taxed the hell out of them to provide more and more generous benefits to the WWII generation, as well as expand social programs in America. Now the boomers are coming to the point where they expect to find their Social Security and Medicare, and the government is bankrupt. The morons in the US Congress spent about $2.6 TRILLION of the excess, paid-in, Social Security taxes on unnecessary wars of choice, stupid pork projects, and normal government operations that they did not want to tax to fund. Repay the $2.6 TRILLION that is owed to Social Security before there is ANY change to the system. Ah, but, that’s the rub. America is bankrupt. Repaying the Social Security system for the monies the Congress took would either require raising taxes, or borrowing, because America is BROKE.
Another great article with even more eye opening information. Thanks for posting, great job, please keep them coming.
Billy-Bob since when have the baby-boomers ever been accountable for anything, all they have ever done is made messes for others to clean up but this time the mess is to huge they have eaten the goose that laid the golden eggs.
Yes, my parents are some of the first of the baby boomers. And its devastating to see both of my dads work their fingers to the bone with little future rewards and no great retirement to look forward to, just more work.
Promised to take care of? this writer is a complete and utter moron..I’ve had over 13,000 a year taken from me to ensure my retirement..I’ve worked in this MANDATED system for 46 years.
No one is taking care of me., if i had the ability to invest that 13,000 a year over the last 46 years I’d be a multi, multi millionaire.
I expect fully to be repaid my benefits, and its ridiculous to say that im expecting anyone to take care of me. I paisd into the damn thing to 4 decades and with the average life expectancy of a male in the uSA at 74 years, the most i can hope for as a return on the million+ i’ve paid is 10 years of pddly little partial payments. When I die, some other scmuck gets the balance of my acount.
the federal governement is guilty as hell of running a scam worse that enron, and they all should be jailed for stealing trillions from the retirement accounts of millions of honest people
This is the plan! It’s called eugenics. The banksters do not care if you are homeless and eating dog food. Neither does the government. The less people, the more for the greedy elite.
The federal government has promised way more than it can afford to pay in entitlements. The national debt is currently about $13.8 Trillion. That figure is made up of Debt Held by the Public ($9.3 Trillion) and Intragovernmental Debt Holdings ($4.5 Trillion). Intragovernmental Debt Holdings are Treasury securities held by government “trust funds.” It’s debt the federal government owes to itself. The largest component of Intragovernmental Debt Holdings is the Social Security Trust Fund which was $2.4 Trillion at the end of Fiscal Year 2010. There is NO MONEY in the Social Security Trust Fund! It’s full of government IOUs. I don’t think a lot of people understand this.
Social Security taxes withheld from federal government and private sector wages are used to fund other areas the federal government! These monies do NOT go into the Social Security Trust Fund. This has been the federal government’s practice for many years now. And the federal government gets itself deeper and deeper into a hole every year.
Social Security is a giant ponzi scheme. I am 35 years of age. I started working when I was 14 years old. Since then, I have had over $34k in Social Security taxes withheld from my wages. But I am certain that I will never see than money again. That’s money that I earned! It belongs to ME. If there were a way to opt of the system and get a refund of taxes withheld, you can be sure that I would do it.
I am a baby-boomer, along with the likes of my erstwhile hero Bob Dylan… We are sell-outs and deserve what we get (or do not get) We sold out to expedience and the dollar. Who do you think are ripping the country off right now….? “Fiscal gap” of 202 TRILLION DOLLARS?? What a crock. That amount of money cannot even be comprehended by the average “tobacco-roader” with his new-found affluence.. Back to the extended family, where the little old Geezers from the soddy-huts will have to buckle down as grand-parents……
& the GOVERNMENT knew 50 years ago that this day was coming & failed to prepare for it. The GOVERNMENT & WALL ST. loved the boomer generation when they were all working & paying taxes & buying houses & consumer goods & raising their kids. Funny how the boomers went from being loved as consumers to now being hated because they grew older.
Well, you said it yourself. Americans should have been saving for retirement. But any dollars they saved could end up being worth pennies if the dollar is radically devalued – which is highly likely.
And far worse than the economic side of things, I see us heading toward fascism. The baby boomers are in for a bumpy ride.
If Baby Boomers want to maintain the high standard of living they have grown accustomed to, they should consider leaving America. Asia and Latin America are popular expat destinations.
Our company Path to Asia http://www.pathtoasia.com/ helps Americans retire comfortably or find jobs in Asia.
As a Boomer, I take exception to the anger and misinformation targeting our generation. Every Boomer I know busted their ass for for over forty years to build this country and raise thier families. No one got a free ride.
Today’s economic problems are the result of greed that transcends all generations. If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at the politicians who got us here, wall street executives who could care less as long as they continue to get their bonuses, and our own apathy for allowing this to happen.
Any of you complaining about the government vote? If not, shut up. If so, for whom did you vote? We get what we deserve.
@Tiacarolann – Are you effing kidding me? Um, no, it was the generation BEFORE you that spilled the blood. You weren’t around for WWII. You were product of the boom AFTER the war. You didn’t hit working age until the 60′s. Rosie the Riveter was YOUR MOM’S GENERATION. You’re the generation of Gordon Gekko.
Give me a freakin break.
money as debt is why “don’t be fooled” http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/money-as-debt/
From Cliff:
“The Baby Boomers will push us into bankruptcy? WTF? Who are you trying to indoctrinate here with this senseless BS? I am shocked you would say that. We already are broke, the elites have stolen the wealth for decades upon decades. Baby Boomers my friggin a*s!”
Couldn’t have said it better.
Moses Znaimer, coined the term ZOOMER to describe the highly motivated, energetic, well trained and non-retiring senior – a “boomer with ZIP.” Zoomers are living longer, working longer and have the potential to become a social resource of immense proportion.
I really surprised by some of the hateful comments here,
“Every retired person collecting social security should be absolutely GRATEFUL and RESPECTFUL of every young working person!
And you know why? Because we are supporting their lazy asses in vacationing homes by our 10% SS taxes taken every time from our paychecks!”
What the heck are you talking about? You just bought into the liberals “it’s us against them” philosophy!!
If you want to blame someone look at the United States Congress for the last 80 yrs…maybe even longer!! Both Republican and Democrats!! They have been handing out welfare and free housing, food, medical to the minorities for yrs with out ANY checks and balances!! And now they are handing it out to freaking illegals who haven’t paid a dime into the system!!
My 25 yr old niece is a single mom (she was drugged and raped!!!) who decided to keep her baby..she works 2 part time jobs, and she was told she doesn’t qualify for food stamps because, are you ready for this? She lives with my other niece who is a firefighter!
Yes, that’s right, she has to include my firefighter niece’s income right along with her income…even though she isn’t supported by her cousin!! It’s a racket designed to help only those who are minorities!!
and billy bob your stupid comment “The baby-boomers were the ones in charge in the run-up of the current financial mess we find ourselves. They broke the system without our permission and it is only fair for them to pay the consequences without our help”. Get your head out of your beer mug, you dope!!! The so called “baby boomers” that you want to pay the consequences? Well, they will NEVER pay ANYTHING…because when they retire from the United States Congress they have taken care of themselves really well!! Yes, that’s right, the people YOU want to blame are just hard working
Americans who struggle to get by day by day, understand this…WE ARE IN THE TROUBLE THAT WE ARE IN BECAUSE OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS HAVE ROBBED US BLIND WHILE WE SAT IN FRONT OF AMERICAN IDOL SIPPING ON OUR STARBUCKS!!!
It’s clear to me, the age has to move up or social security dollars have to go down. Let the retires choose. If you’re retiring and want the taxes of 2 people (20k a year), retire at 62. If you want the taxes of 10 working people (100k) wait until your 67.
Blaming anyone is ridiculous, we have to deal with reality.
I have no sympathy for the most selfish generation on the planet because I’ve been getting fleeced to pay for the Ponzi scam known as Social Security since I was old enough to work. They took the best of everything and pulled up the ladder when it came time for others to partake in the same bennies they had. For the first time in their lives, they’re going to be held accountable for something. Good luck.
End the wars, end the Empire, problem solved.
This isn’t the Baby Boomers fault. Not at all. Those at the very top of the economic pyramid are to blame. The elite are the enemy, they stole our future.
I have to (Horrors) agree with Gary to a point on this one Social Security should have been means tested years ago. This is not new the Grace Commission was screaming about this decades ago and nobody did squat then. Oh BTW for you who heads have been up a certain orifice for the last 20 years the Grace Commission was the first Deficit Reduction Commission in the late 1980’s early 1990.
We are screwed just look at the figures the political elites have known about this for decades and did squat. Why because to many people on Social Security did nothing to get ready for their retirement, and would panic the minute anybody suggested anything to make Social Security sound, and they vote.
This is save what you can time, get food, get in shape, get armed, and keep a look out. If you’re dependent on Social Security or any other Government entitlement your hosed period it’s time to reconnect with family, and people who may give a crap if you live or die. For further giggles Goggle Graham Rudman Bill
Someone who comments on this site may be able to answer a question that has been puzzling me for months now. With 10,000 per day starting to sell stocks, don’t we need 10,000 people per day starting to buy stocks? That is, don’t we need 10,000 people with excess cash to put into stocks so that those selling stocks have someone to buy them? If there is not a person willing to buy the stock I am selling at a higher price than I paid for it, how can the stock market go up? Answers?
Do you want to learn the truth about our fraudulent economic system? Watch the “The Secret of Oz” for free on Youtube.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U71-KsDArFM
When the neo-feudalist robber barons destroyed the American middle class, they not only screwed The Baby Boomers, but also, Generation X and Generation Y. Many members of Gen-X and Gen-Y have been seriously underemployed, which means that they aren’t paying as much into Social Security—and that is very bad news for Gen-X and Gen-Y as well as for the Baby Boomers, many of whom can look forward to eating dog food and freezing to death in the winter. Many aging Boomers simply won’t have enough to retire on, and neither will Gen-X when they get older. Gen-X-ers can also look forward to dog food and heatless winters in their senior years (assuming they live that long and don’t die prematurely thanks to the country’s ever-worsening health insurance crisis).
Social Security is in trouble, traditional pensions (as Michael Snyder points out in #3) are going the way of a dinosaur—and for self-employed folks like myself, SEP IRAs are underperforming because interest rates are so pathetically low. Put all these things together, and you have a nasty retirement crisis for three different generations (the Boomers, Gen-X and Gen-Y) in this rotting, decaying Third World horror movie called The Banana Republic of America (formerly the USA).
Just for clarification – the point of my article was not to blame anyone. I am certainly not trying to place “the blame” on the Baby Boomers.
I was just trying to point out the financial reality that we are now facing as a nation.
As a nation we did not prepare for what we knew was coming. Now we are going to pay the price.
The Baby Boomers were known as the “Me Generation” for good reason.
They thought only of themselves.
They demanded goodies for themselves. Wars, bailouts, special government pensions, fat Medicare benefits, gold-plated Social Security promises.
They oversaw the liquidation of the American economy, shipping our jobs overseas, swelling the cost of college educations, introducing debt as a replacement for income, and moving all the wealth to themselves.
They pigged out on ever more bling — face lifts, $60,000 cars, second and third homes.
But they didn’t save a dime.
Now they’re running around whining that they paid into the system, almost 10% of the total that they’re expecting to get out of it… and all those unemployed and underpaid Gen Xers and Gen Yers had better be prepared to pay 50% taxes on our shrunken incomes stocking shelves at Wal-Mart to pay for their $10,000 “free Medicare scooters” and 40 year retirements on the beaches of Florida and the Carolinas.
Uh, no. Doesn’t work that way.
The Boomers had the best situation in the world — plentiful jobs, cheap education, security in employment. They blew it all, overspent, sold out the following generations, and are now whining that the remaining little pieces of other generations’ wealth they didn’t sell, steal, outsource, offshore, or put up as collateral for their deadbeat debts should now belong to them.
Nope. Not gonna happen.
It’s called the Constitution! Had the horde of unthinking, institutionally created or self-created, dumbasses in the electorate read the Constitution and understood it, then the sorry, no-good SOBs we have elected the past 100 plus years would not have put us where we are today. “Progressives,” “Utopianites” aka rotten bastards are finally having their day of reckoning. It’s too bad that they have to drag millions and millions of us down with them. There are no solutions except to look to God and family for help. OOPS, wait a moment, we’ve replaced God with science and relevant morality. We’ve “anthropormorphsized” God haven’t we? We’ve had how many millions of abortions since Roe v. Wade? AND, government welfare has driven a continental wedge in the family structure. So there are too few families that can sustain the magnitude 10.9 economic earthquake that is occurring by helping other family members. We are truly in the throes of the end of life as we know it. We failed to learn from history and have blissfully followed the same path as the Romans. Immorality, illegitimacy, pornography, homosexuality, and destruction of the family, amongst many other factors, are the spawn of progressives; and we are now to reap what we have sown. May God forgive us and have mercy on us!
Just kidding about the Hippies. How about we end the WARS? The MANY MANY EXPENSIVE Wars?! Apparently even though we spend trillions of dollars looking for terrorists, they can still successfully become “the underwear bomber”. Who came up with that scenario? Some guy working at the CIA who really just wanted to go to Hollywood….?
HOW TO SAVE money…STOP ALL WARS NOW!
To Matt The Stock Market doesn’t work that way, also who are the 10,000 getting out? I would bet most of them are small investors. As I understand it this is pretty much a “Traders Market” that means few people are doing the traditional buy and hold or buy stocks based on the fundamentals of a company. Most of the present buying and selling is done based on short-term trends based either on a market, a new product, or external events that might affect an industry.
There is a lot of computer trading done by Hedge Funds some think this increases the instability of the market, and one of many reasons small investors have gotten out of the market.
Hope this helps a little.
PS to Admin I didn’t get that impression at all.
Matt,
The simple logic is that they will have to “take what they can get” if they need access to those funds at a specific time. When this starts happening in increasing numbers, it will in all likelihood create continual downward pressure on the market. It is just another aspect of supply and demand principles: when supply (sellers) exceeds demand (buyers), the suppliers must lower cost in order to attract the buyer to them from the other sellers. This principle is also what is going to keep the housing market going downward too, because as people have to sell their homes, either because they can’t afford them or need to move because their job is transferred, they also need to take what they can get. Right now, there is tremendous over-supply in the housing market, so in order to sell in a timely manner, you have to drop the price below your competitors. In my opinion, I’d get out of the stock market now if you can. You can buy back in later, after the market nosedives and hits its new bottom. If you need access to that money in the near future, as this downward pressure is happening, you will also have to sell at “take what you can get” prices.
Powerful wake-up call of an article. If this doesn’t move the several affected generations to action I don’t know what will. Those with a sense of the effects of age-based demographics saw all of this coming decades ago and sounded the alarm only to be called “Chicken Littles” by many in media and politics. I’m luckier than most – thanks to having several strong streams of income, but I pray for a large number of good citizens who’ve worked hard and won’t reap the benefits therefrom.
Regardless!……..I, like millions of other workers, paid in to this system for over 45 years!
I don’t care how they solve the problem., but I want my money back first!
Feeling Shafted…….who the hell do you think paid the bills so you could grow up you ungrateful coward!
Mondobeyondo…….the Government is working on that now!
blaster1
And the feds are punishing Madoff for a ponzi scheme? He probably got his idea from THEM. In a perfect world we would confiscate all the assets of every person who had servewd in congress since the inception of social security and their heirs. Malfeasance is a crime even if you “hand the ball off” to someone else. The best quote I have heard in a long time is, “we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.” The new congress should cut foreign aid by 90%, eliminate the department of education, eliminate the internal revenue service, and go to a “point of sale” national sales tax,(tax on consumption,not production)and totally eliminate the unconstitutional income tax. That would be just for starters.
I’m a baby boomer, a 1957 Classic, like the Chevy Belair and Ford Fairlane, both of which are American icons. Some people get what’s going on with our corrupt government and some don’t. Those that know have been preparing as best they can for what’s coming and the ignorant deserve what they are going to get because the truth is out there. To those that would blame My Generation, **** You! To my fellow real Americans that know and love the TRUTH, God Bless You!
We are broke.We will do the best we can .Everyone going to die it just a matter of when. Suck it up and move on.
I too am a “Baby Boomer”, born at the tail end of the baby boomers in 1961. As other Baby Boomers have mentioned, don’t blame us – I paid many thousands of dollars every year into the social security system and will likely see little, if any, in return because the system will be broke by the time it is my turn to collect.
Consider this -> the younger generations are lucky – they don’t have but a few more years of paying social security taxes before social security dies (hopefully) so they will loose alot less than guys like me have who have paid in for thirty years or more.
If I had been allowed to keep all that social security money that was taken from my paychecks every week, I could retire next year at 50! But no, it all went to the Greatest Generation World War II generation and to millions of “disabled” (we all know supposedly disabled people who spend their days fishing and hunting etc) who collect far more from the system than they ever paid in.
When you think about it, the World War II generation got through with flying colors – they bought homes for $10,000 in 1950 that sold for $200,000 when they retired, paid in just a few years of social security taxes but got full benefits for the remainder of their lives when retired, got pensions from the jobs they worked (often 40 years at the same company without knowing what a layoff was), and all those other perks from when America was on a roll.
Well, those days are over.
Ok,we ahve been fed this BS for too long now…I know it too well.You didnt plan to fail,you failed to plan..No,,,WRONG,,,THE SYSTEM WAS SET UP AND RIGGED SINCE 1913 TO DO JUST WHAT ITS DOING TODAY..Ask Ron Paul for the details
It is time to get our priorities in order….My history, a hard working American, former Marine, former Firefighter, and now in my sixties,and sick of hearing all the crying that my gov’t is broke…..We are not broke….There is nothing more important then taking care of our vet’s, our citizens (esp. those that are unemployed due to giving all the manufacturing base jobs to other countries)…. It is time to take care of our own people? Let’s cut back on being the worlds’ policeman for awhile……In fifty years we have gone from people of the world loving Americans and wanting to come to our country legally, to now, crying wolf and finding ourselves in a situation of not taking care of our own…..Let’s cut the bull, it’s time to back off on the huge military budget, stop creating sweat shops around the globe, and return to the proper virtues for the world to see this brilliant nation (bring our priorties back in order)…We take care of our Vet’s, our old, our sick, and our young first and foremost…We are Americans, the light of the world, so stop the crying, change the priorities….Don’t worry, there are plently of us ready to defend our country if need be, and it would be an honor to do so….If we are spreading the word that we are broke, it’s due to being spread to thin, so it’s time to circle the wagons, and re-think America’s place in this world. Greed and profit can blind ones eyes to the real priorities of this economy and world. We cannot help the world if we do not show the right example. We serve others, but in order to do so, we must follow the constitution, and reset our economic priorities.
Of course we are only taking about those that are of the working class variety. The ones that have sold American labor over seas, cut millions of millions of jobs, downsized critical company benefits like pension plans and transferred that over to to the big gambling casino of Wall Street in the form of 401k’s, these bastards sold us all out for their own benefit.
can you say..soylent green
smokymtnmama
my ass is not so fat -a great diet called lung cancer caused by my work in 1971 with spent nuke fuel what is used for armor piercing or harding
warheads on machine guns an small rockets.Of course we were told it was safe. Well as I am only 56 now .Your fat arce will not have to pay on me long and who knows you may get a few crumbs of what I paid in left overs, But dont hold your breath.
You know what? I don’t give a flying F*** anymore. I’ll work at my job till I drop dead or they throw me out and then I’ll go live under a f***ing bridge till I die and I won’t give a shit about anyone else. This f***ing government is broke, our country is dying faster every day and it CAN…NOT…AND…WILL…NOT…BE….FIXED!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND, DUMMIES?
Screw it, if you have a job, keep working. If you don’t…sit back and enjoy the misery to come. We’ve reaped what we’ve sown.
-
Lotsa comments sound like fact-free emotion snits, juiced up by media-made synthetic-polyester propaganda LIES; (such as: “Iraq has WMDs — OMG! OMG! — so borrow $2 Trillion more from Fed.Reserve bankers and let’s go get those WMDs … while there is still a Vast Petroleum Prize for the winner, in them thar sands”). The fact is ‘Boomers’ are NOT the bad-guys ‘enemy.’ Fed.Reserve banker banking interests IS the bad-guy enemy.
HERE‘s a link, read a book, for the X-geners and Y-geners who can get OFF the TV and get ON the internet for a change, for some history in fact.
Here’s the problem solved:
Most folks do not earn over $100,000 per year, (many ‘bankers’ do though), and most folks do not realize that Social Security deductions (~7% for smployees, ~14% for self-employed) STOP being taken out of your paycheck after the first $100,000 of the year.
Someone who earns $1,000,000 (like a media celebrity, say, the ‘Evening News’ TV-anchors in your hometown maybe, keeping mum about it and you don’t know their rich paycheck) pays NO Soc.Sec.deduct’s (7%) on the $900,000 above the cut-off at the $100K SS-pay ‘cap’.
Solution: Remove the ‘cap’.
So a banker or realtor or celebrity earning $200,000 (Congresscritters), $400,000 (President), $1 million, $2 million, … or $more, PAYS the Soc.Sec.deduction all the way UP.
Remove the ‘cap’ and {presto} Social Security Trust fund is solvent beyond 2070 … how old will you be in 2070? … X-geners? Y-geners? … anyone? … anyone?
Rich folks ain’t gonna like it, to start paying their (7%) fair share of ALL their income into Social Security just like normal people. Rich people bribe Congress NOT to remove the Soc.Sec. withholding ‘cap’. They’d rather see the 20-to-40somethings at war against 60-to-80somethings blaming each other for Grand Theft and civil society bankruptcy.
Only, when the Over$100,000 ‘select few’ group starts paying their share into Social Security, the supposed ‘shortage’ problem is solved. Do the math, using facts. (Some HERE)
- –
Maybe most folks hardly care to learn, but there are some common standards of reference which we might call ‘facts’. And we might better understand each other’s perspective — 20-yr-old, 40-yr-old, 60-yr-old — if/when we talk about and relate our comments to the same one set of facts, a framework, we all agree on.
Such as:
Define (human) ‘generation’ equal to 14 years (approx.) because 14 years is (about) the age of puberty at which it is possible to procreate a new (offspring) ‘generation.’ (Actual age may vary, it is an individual thing.)
(Now comments may start by saying whether or not they agree with ’1 gen = 14 yrs,’ and then relate consequent discussion points accordingly.)
One ‘generalized’ sociological framework, (holding ALL humankind, all cultures, world-around — so to think outside the USA box), looks like this:
1914-1928 so-called ‘greatest generation’
1928-1942 ‘analytical’ generation (my label for it)
1942-1956 so-called ‘Baby Boomers‘ (but I call it ‘Musician’ gen, it made rock’n'roll)
1956-1970 so-called ‘Me gen’ (I call it differently)
1970-1984 so-called ‘X-gen’ (I call it ‘Xtreme gen’)
1984-1998 so-called ‘Y-gen’ (I say ‘International’ gen, when WorldWideWeb started)
1998-2012 what is called ‘Millennials’ I suppose.
2012-2026 ‘Poet’ generation (according to me)
… and so on …
Maybe (likely?) other folks have other ‘frameworks’ to offer here. Really though, I expect most people never thought about it, do not have dates of generations and go without a ‘framework’ for appraising society, humankind, and the world and era we are living in.
If you ain’t got your own framework for your p.o.v., perhaps use mine to start with and then adjust it as you see fit. (Otherwise whatcha got?, the massmedia propaganda programmed vagueness you heard somewhere — ‘boomers’? ‘Me gen’? whatever, undefined — as in ‘faggedaboutit, you’re not qualified to think about it‘? I say you are qualified. So am I.)
I confess I stole the idea of the framework, above, from HERE, and it’s about 5000 years old. Wisdom of the ages. Practice of the Sages and the Magi.
-
Well I have my own opinion of the boomers…the greatest generation built the infrastructure not the boomers as one person said. As my grandparents retired in the early 80′s this country slowly went to hell. Gen x and a boomer computer geek and president gave us our last good decade, the 90′s, even though it was just a fake bubble too.
It isn’t all the ME generations fault, it is fractional reserve banking and fiat currency which is designed to take down one empire and give birth to another.
YOU CAN TAKE THIS TO THE BANK…factoid number 14 should make the hair on the back of your necks stand straight up. We will be insolvent nationally before then. By the year 2020 we will know for those who survive, who won and lost WWIII. I imagine the shear head spinning vastness of China will be something to see.
Imagine China 1.3 billion strong right now. They have all our manufacturing they are building cities that no one lives in, a standing army the likes no man that has ever lived will see. This decade will be frightening.
Yes, they retired and sucked all the boomer’s money out of social security. They also were the likes of Reagan, Carter and Bush Sr. who didn’t necessarily do good things for America.
After they were done destroying everything, they rode around with license plates for years that said WE’RE SPENDING OUR CHILDREN’S INHERITANCE.
There was NEVER a generation in America that was as priviledged and cared for than the greatest generation. The wives stayed home (unlike the boomers who HAD To work) and the men all retired with nice pensions (the boomers got worthless 401k’s) When the greatest men retired, the greatest women ALSO got social security checks. The boomers had 2 working and now everyone’s whining because we’re ready to use our money?? We paid into the system at twice the rate the greatest did and THEY spent it all before we even got there.
The greatest generation also created the 30-year mortage for the boomers (so they could suck half their income off for 30 years). They all were able to pay their houses off in 5-7 years though. They also got rid of the gold standard (that caused the massive inflation we’ve had to endure for 40 years now). The greatest generation also started all the out-sourcing and layoffs. Guess what, that all happened to the boomers too, not just the whiny gen x and y. The greatest generation was also the ones to take away the standard pension (starting about 1980).
I fail to see how ANY of this is truly a boomer caused problem.
As a person born in 1946 I as well as many others were quite AWARE of the coming potential financial problems. Our “leaders” ignored the situation and now it is time to go back to all these “leaders” and confiscate 80% of their wealth for not doing their jobs. Pure and simple – they are the ones to pay for their greed of pushing off potential problems to a later generation. This problem was not overlooked – it was known about and ignored!!!!!
RIGHT ON….I can not handle the boomers acting like victims!!! When they had the BEST of the BEST and now their children and grandchildren are screwed!
Generation Xer
December 31st, 2010 at 5:57 am
The Baby Boomers were known as the “Me Generation” for good reason.
They thought only of themselves.
They demanded goodies for themselves. Wars, bailouts, special government pensions, fat Medicare benefits, gold-plated Social Security promises.
They oversaw the liquidation of the American economy, shipping our jobs overseas, swelling the cost of college educations, introducing debt as a replacement for income, and moving all the wealth to themselves.
They pigged out on ever more bling — face lifts, $60,000 cars, second and third homes.
But they didn’t save a dime.
Now they’re running around whining that they paid into the system, almost 10% of the total that they’re expecting to get out of it… and all those unemployed and underpaid Gen Xers and Gen Yers had better be prepared to pay 50% taxes on our shrunken incomes stocking shelves at Wal-Mart to pay for their $10,000 “free Medicare scooters” and 40 year retirements on the beaches of Florida and the Carolinas.
Uh, no. Doesn’t work that way.
The Boomers had the best situation in the world — plentiful jobs, cheap education, security in employment. They blew it all, overspent, sold out the following generations, and are now whining that the remaining little pieces of other generations’ wealth they didn’t sell, steal, outsource, offshore, or put up as collateral for their deadbeat debts should now belong to them.
Nope. Not gonna happen.
Jen, what a spoiled, self-centered brat you are and how VERY wrong you also are. Maybe you should do some reading before you flap your jaw…. Talk about acting like victim!!! What a joke. I’ve NEVER HEARD A BIGGER WHINER. How disgusting. It really is not very appealing and makes you look very stupid and self-centered.
The boomers had NONE of the things you are talking about spoiled little girl. In fact, they had WAY LESS than your ungrateful sniveling generation. Plentiful jobs, are you talking about the ones the boomer computer whiz’s created for ALL OF US?? FYI, There would be a LOT FEWER jobs around today without the likes of BOOMERS like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
Maybe if you read a little history you would understand that president’s such as Lyndon Johnson, who was in office during the late 60s, was incredibly worried about what the country would do with 79 million boomers. The industrial revolution was winding down and the good manufacturing jobs were ALREADY going away. Johnson worried there would not be enough jobs to keep the boomers employed and fretted about what could be done about the problem.
When I first graduated from high school, EVERYONE was unemployed. There were NO jobs for young people. I remember mothers mentioning how their son had a master’s degree and was pumping gas. Maybe you should read some history? It hasn’t always been peachy keen like you SOMEHOW EXPECT to be handed on a silver platter, not by a long shot.
Lo and behold, along came companies like Microsoft and Apple, INVENTED BY BOOMERS, which in turn, virtually employed a whole generation, and a couple afterwards.. Boomers didn’t wait around and snivel and cry about how the older generation shafted them, they moved forward and created an entire economy called the KNOWLEDGE industry and worked HARD at it.
So my answer to you is to get off your whiney duff and INVENT something that will employ a few hundred million people and stop whining that the boomers aren’t taking care of you cradle to grave.
$60,000 cars and third homes, GET REAL! Maybe the 1%, certainly NOT the average boomer. As far as the housing collapse. Everything I’ve read indicates it is a GEN X caused problem. Most boomers not the idiots who took out the HUGE OVEREXTENDED loans. That was YOUR generation dear. Look in the mirror. Also, boomers aren’t the ones with the big credit card problems either. Once again, YOUR GEN.
We didn’t BLOW anything. How dare you blame ONE generation (that in some cases is probably all of 2 years older than you!!!) How perfectly stupid, especially when you consider, YOUR TURN coming soon. After all, Gen Y, ALMOST as big as boomer generation. You don’t hear much news about that fact though do you… Wake up, coming to YOUR life soon and can’t say you don’t deserve.
Why don’t you stick your ignorant nose in a economics book for a change and you will realize that the vast majority of problems were caused by the Federal Reserve and has NOTHING to do with boomers. Also, all this corruption has been rolling along for a LONG time in this country. It was Johnson who initiated the GREAT SOCIETY (and welfare state) in 1968, Nixon who created the war on drugs (with huge expense) and also got rid of the gold standard in 1972.
Both had huge impact on the financial health of America and we are truly feeling the results today. You can’t blame the boomers for ANY of that. The ball was already rolling when boomers hit the stage, JUST THE SAME AS YOU. Also, what I find most absurd about all the generational WHINING is that the oldest boomers JUST hit 65 last year. The VAST majority are still working.
I’m also very tired of your generation not only blaming everything on one generation (which is completely ludicrous), but also, a good percentage of the power brokers still running America are NOT boomers. They are the SILENT GENERATION. I’m talking about the likes of Madoff, Cheney, Gingrich, etc., are NOT BOOMERS so get over yourself.
Moggie
You are going to lose this argument. I watched this foolishness throughout the 1980′s. As more Boomers took positions of power in our political/business/education institutions the worst things got. I became an adult in 1985, our generation watched in disbelief at what Boomers did. Unfortunately GEN X was too small to fight back effectively. This younger generation is going to rain fire on you because they are larger 95 million vs. 75 million and they are pissed.
You tell Jen the truth. Your generation has the lowest savings rate in US history. You were busy putting your retirement money in 25 gallon SUV’s directly after the first GULF war in the early 1990′s.
Moggie what is very clear even in the political theatre
1) Baby Boomer Bill Clinton signed the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act – that led to the 2008 Economic meltdown
Signed more free trade agreements with Korea, Panama et al
2) Bill Clinton signed NAFTA – a major contributor to the incessant job loss
3) Boomer GW Bush – where do we begin Bush tax cuts that exploded the federal debt
4) Iraq War – 2-3 Trillion dollars in expenditures and cost – not paid for..
5) The 2008 Meltdown
6) The 2008 Bank Bailout
7) Boomer Obama -extended GW Bush tax cuts
9) Failed to prosecute Wall Street Crimes committed by Boomer Bankers
These are just some of the highlights under Presidential leadership. There are at least 50 other points that can demonstrate how Boomers have literally torn this nation apart and gone through the national treasure like a swarm of locusts and they have no intention of leaving anything behind. We can go through each and every point.
This is good,how many of you people are bashing the Boomers and voted in Obama and his socialist agenda??The Boomers payed dearly for there right to SS.Its there damn money that has been stolen.
I don’t doubt that most of the people doing the bashing are the 48% that don’t pay tax at all,your just affarid your free ride will come to an end.
Be carful what you wish for,you put the Boomers on the street and you will need your brownshorts to protect your freeloading ass.
As a babyboomer I agree we are screwed! Get out of town now while you can. Watch the video – http://www.urbandanger.com/