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.
@mike: ss is a TAX, not a retirement entitlement. THAT IS WHAT THE US SUPREME COURT HAS DECLARED.
the problem is not the generation that built this nations wealth and paid taxes into a fund that was stolen it is the government that stole the taxes that were entrusted to them for our keeping. to blame my generation is to blame the victim instead of the thief we have been raped and it is not our fault
hey- It’s the boomers’ fault that they want to collect after putting money into the system for 45 0r 50 years? Come on now boys and girls…The war in Iraq alone is costing about $720 million a day (or $500,000 a minute)- and that’s not counting Afghanistan or those 700 plus military bases in over 120 countries. It comes down to a simple choice: would you rather see more military expansion- while you eat a diet of cat food- or withdraw the empire, protect our own borders – and you enjoy a decent retirement?
The day of reckoning is upon us.
United States does not have neither the money nor
the human resources for this huge expansion of patient care. Within the boomers are also Doctors
and Nurses and they will also start to retire as
well. Nearly 1/3 of the Physicians ( 250,000 ) are
above the age of 55 and will not be involved in patient care in the next 7-8 years, moreover 67%
of the Physicians ( 500,000 ) of them, are above
the age of 46 and will be gone from practice in
the next 20 years. During the next 20 years the total
USA population will expand to 370 millions and the
group above 65 will add to 75 millions, the system
can not and will not be able to take care of them.
Given the fact that the numbers of new graduates from
medical residency program has remained the same(about
22,000/year ), combined with physician disability,
death and early retirement due to out of control of
overhead cost, medical liability and government
regulations, the ACTUAL physician shortage will be
around 200,000 ( low estimate) by 2020 and 400,000
by 2030. The nurses will be retiring in the hundreds
of thousands as well. Eventually Direct contact with
a physician will be a rare event.
Add to all of the above, the collapse of the usa
dollar, and all unfunded liabilities: Medicare,
medicaid , social security , city and State pensions
federal debt and interest in the federal and you will
see that there is no way out of this.
prepare yourself and your family.
God bless
I agree w/the commenters that pull the sheep’s clothing off the wolf. The author neglects MAJOR stats about the govt. having robbed the soc. sec. kitty for decades! Their reckless spending, including $$$ giveaways to the banks and the lining of their own pockets, not to mention multiple unecessary and treasonous wars, benefits to illegals, and lack of oversight on entitlement programs (Medicare/Medicaid) resulting in fraud (and more), have left this country bankrupt! I say let’s shake them upside down from the top down to see what we can salvage, then start over!!!
TO ALL THE ARROGANT AND RUDE BABY BOOMERS YOU DON’T DESEVERSE ANTHING FROM ANY OF US. WE SHALL LET YOU SUFFER IN THE MANOR OF YOUR OWN DESTRUCTION.THEN WE WILL HAVE A PARTY.
OK, and when we all get old and lose our houses, where exactly will you crash SLACKER?
And, no doubt, it will all be put on a charge card.
How much will people take before they just march to Washington D.C. and throw these people out of their buildings?
I have been a stay at home Mom since I was 20. I have one left. I was born in 57 and I have worked in the employment field off and on during my life. I am married. Well, I just got my new social security statement, well they changed it. I used to be getting something and now nothing. So, all my husband and I will get is his social security. We know we are in trouble. We lost our business due to the economics of this world. I know I will have to go back to work, I am for it, but..I know we need to do something drastic to be prepared for our retirement..we can not depend on the government. We are scared. Our five children laugh at us and say things like we are going to have to take care of you guys. Nice thought but in reality…not! No parent wants to be dependant on their children…might be pride..but we want to take care of them. I am worried about our generation, because I see a lot of people just like us out there in the same boat. I am a Christian and I depend on God’s word. He is my only hope.
What does being a Christian have to do with being prepared for the future? This affects us all – race, age, religion has nothing to do with it. We need to prepare for our retirement. Unfortunately most of us dont know how to do that. The good news is there are answers out there as to how we can have some kind of retirement. God does provide the answers. We need to provide the effort to seek and implement those answers.
Your photo is a little misleading.
Does anyone even remember why OAS (old age security) came into existence? In 1908, OAS was introduced in Britain for people over 70 years old. The average life expectancy in 1908 was 50 years old.
OAS was meant for people too old to work, who lived so long as to be an exception to the rule of life expectancy.(And remember, there was no welfare program then, no disability plans, and no minimum wage!)
In 2011, the life expectancy in the US is 76 years old. Today’s 76 year old is much healthier and better cared for than a 50 year old in 1908 (for example, hip replacements were still unknown in 1908, as were vaccinations, drinking water was less safe, and access to nutritive food was limited).
Simply put, today’s 65 is not old and has access to better social services, so why should they be given a paid pension?
It is not us vs. them. We are all in this together and if we fall apart and fight each other it will be 100 times worse. The Boomers did give us the sex, drugs, and rock n roll society and we are suffering the consequences of it. The boomers accepted the counter culture, radical lifestyles and we are suffering the consequences of it. Boomers in government and media and using their wrecking ball of socialism to crash the society. You can live free or die waiting for the government to help you. All we need is to have God back in our lives.
Boomers are doing all that??? I don’t think so. It’s NOT the boomers walking around all tatted up with earrings in their tongues (drooling).
Most boomers do NOT live radical lifestyles. What comic are you reading? Also, I highly doubt that any more boomers approve of socialism than any other generation. From everything I’ve seen, it’s the younger generations that are pushing all that (something for nothing philosophy). That was NEVER a boomer mantra. Boomer’s were (and still are) hard workers and there’s no doubt about it. I’ve heard plenty of times that the employers prefer them to the shiftless and lazy SLACKERS who still live in mommy and daddy’s basement and WHINE a lot.
There are layers upon layers of problems associated with our government. There is no easy fix, nor do I claim to know how to correct the problems. However, here are some things to think about.
Let’s bring the troops home, and stop waging wars all over the world. Great. What are you going to do with hundreds of thousands of unemployed soldiers in this country? Are we going to put them to work in other industries? Fine, but where are those jobs? To the employees of the military-industrial complex, what do we do with those jobs? That is one of the last manufacturing aspects of our economy. Now they are going to be in the ranks of the unemployed as well. Spend some time looking at the economy immediately post WWII, you will see how this was dealt with before – pick another war in a few years with Korea.
We cannot forget the role the greatest generation and the boomers have both played in this regard. Together they have set policy over the last 75 years. The greatest generation suffered through the depression and WWII. They did what they had to do so that their children, the boomers, would have a life better than they did. They succeeded in giving the boomers what they wanted for them – a better life. The problem is with the better life, the boomers rarely had the heartbreak that went with it. As such, they took and took, while the greatest generation gave and gave. Both are at fault.
Now I sit as a Generation X member, looking at the mistakes made by the greatest generation and the boomers, wondering how to protect my children, and instill in them the work habits of the greatest generation. Funny how these things go full circle.
As for the system as a whole the country is failing. Time is running out, but we must be mindful that this problems took decades to create and will not be corrected by some knee jerk reaction of blame, altering benefits, increasing taxes, and changing the social fabric.
We need leaders who are willing to stand up and explain to the american sheep what is really going on in this country. We are broke. We are all going to suffer. We are all going to have a miserable life until these things get fixed. However, until we get real leaders, willing and able to lead we will see nothing but the downward spiral…..please pass the cat food.
You sure got that backwards. The greatest took and took and took from the boomers and frankly (as all boomers already know) where not all that GREAT.
The greatest did a lot of crap to America that harmed all of us. Like getting rid of the gold standard in 72, setting up the Great Society in 68 and specially creating the 30-year rip-off mortgage deal for the boomers that ended up screwing everyone (except the greatest).
They also created the lovely war on drugs which I think has virtually destroyed America, especially any semblance of liberty or freedom. Plus, if you’re black, watch out, you may end up in jail soon!
None of this was the boomer’s fault and was hoisted on us by our elders. Let’s see how great your generation does? They’re already starting out bad. Look at their little housing crisis, NOT a boomer thing. You can blame yourselves.
The greatest also wiped out the boomers social security funds before we ever got there. This was the fund that took 2 working adults
I hope we all enjoy our senior lives, once we reach that age…the reward of a lifetime of savings and hard work.
And what reward will that be for us, the Baby Boomers? Shivering in the cold under an overpass bridge, sharing our cans of Mighty Dog and Friskies with our grandchildren. By then, we’ll have enough from our meager Social Security checks, to throw the grandkids a Milk Bone.
Maybe that works for Ethiopia, or Panama, or Uganda. They are used to that kind of existence. But it won’t work for the United States of America. We expected better than this. And we DEMAND better! (And that’s just the Gen Xer’s speaking!! Just wait till the Baby Boomers speak up en masse!)
Retirement? Yes! Our senior citizens worked hard all their lives for that goal. But they’ll be damned if they’re going to retire in Detroit or Compton. Not gonna happen!! Miami, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Hawaii, maybe Tahiti. They earned it, and they deserve it!
Maybe it WILL happen though – dear grandpa and grandma will spend their golden years in downtown Detroit… but not before a whole lot of people are killed in the process. These same people marched in the streets in ’67 and ’68 protesting the Vietnam War. They know how to protest. They won’t go down without a hell of a fight.
And don’t count on the government to help you, either. The only army that will save you is the Salvation Army.
It’s time to pray…
WE have the most avaricious, crooked bunch of vampires in the various govt. branches. Lying weasels everywhere. Bankers stealing brazenly. Napolitano cackling about the war on terror, all lies. Absurd payments for wars, stupid defense purchases. Towns like New London, Ct. that enlisted the likes of Dodd, Jerk Murtha, Joe Courtney, and Rob Simmons to “save” the sub base, all the while draining the citizens of the state of Connecticut. Robber barons everywhere. We are dead meat, it’s all over, folks.
It’s over folks. Can’t you feel it about you?
We just can’t, won’t or don’t want to see it.
It’s called the “normalcy bias”…look it up.
Lord help us all.
Abolish the military. Problem over.
The assumption seems to be that all the boomers failed to prepare. In a significant number of cases I think most have some preparation for retirement. To the rest who failed to save and prepare through bad choices or unfortunate luck they will have to suffer some pain and I am hoping their numbers are relatively small. The future will be tough but remember that as the boomers retire it opens a spot for a younger replacement.
Couple things missing in this diatribe of doom. We boomers, we sef absorbed, narcissistic, cogzuggers, have two crowning achievments: first, we have payed for the retirement of “the greatest generation” (whose greatness derives more from opportunity than intrinsic merit); second, we have produced generation y, “the echo”, a bunch of lazy hindquartered kids. We will inherit the deflated fruits of “The greatest generation”. We will be supported to some extent by not only our lazy hindquartered kids(who I believe are no less likely to turn into wonderful productive people than any other generationh since the beginning of time), but by the far younger immigrant population.
Guess who turns 65 in July! This article is probably one of the most despressing I have read on the subject. Ross Perot warned us all about this in the 90′s. Everytime the conservatives tried to get a handle on social security, the liberals started screaming that the Republicans wanted to steal social security from grandma. Well, now we are “grandma” and since we didn’t listen then, we get to pay now!
Now do you understand why the liberals wanted to enact and HAVE enacted death panels! Now do you understand why the facist liberals want control over all our lives… if they control your health care, they control your death and believe me… they will do that out of the nightmare they deliberately caused.
Liberals have ALWAYS had the death agenda via decreasing population. Since they couldn’t get us to buy into it outright, they promote abortion and the gay agenda. You aren’t having babies if you are aborting them. You aren’t breeding if you are screwing a member of your own sex!
The liberals have destroyed this country and the babyboomers (myself included) either contributed to it’s destruction actively or inactively… but never doubt, WE, THE BOOMERS caused this mess! Hopefully, via the Tea Party we can help straighten out this mess before we all go down… but it will take sacrafice and I’m not sure how that is going to look!
Death camps anyone?
Boomers didn’t cause this mess. It all started with the Greatest. They’re the one’s who sucked social security dry and got rid of the gold standard, to name a few. Most of the problems we are seeing today were NOT created by the boomers.
Speak for yourself, I worked hard my whole life and was ripped off by corrupt corporations and politicians.
Seems to be a lot of genrational hate here at this site. Amazing how so many can be deceived by stats.
I may be a typical boomer. Born in ’53, started working and paying into social security at age 13. That’s 45 years as a salaried/hourly employee and 8 more ’till full retirement. I will likely work beyond that “official” date so long as my health allows. I have been frugal & have saved enough to get by – so long as the Marxists don’t confiscate my savings and assets.
I would like to see my social security “trust” some day when I can’t work but don’t think I will. Too much class/generational envy by the likes of many here.
Too many deadbeats in our society gaming the system – wanting something for nothing. That includes current retirees, boomers x-ers, etc, etc.
The answers to our economic problems are not impossible to correct. We just lack the will to implement steps necessary to do so.
The open market is a natural order. It will find its own correction eventually. For US, the correction won’t be pretty.
judas held the money bag, he was dishonest, god knew that so He provided extra… im a boomer and i am at peace ’cause my God provides for me… call on His name today for salvation.
This is the Land of Opportunity and all of you lazy ass goobers that want the government to take more and more from the rich so YOU can sit around on your lazy ass and bitch should be ashamed of yourself.
If 40% plan to “work till they drop” I dont see a problem.
If it wasn’t for the Greatest Generation, we would probably all be speaking German, living in a totalitarian fascist state, and a swastika replacing the 50 stars on the U.S. flag.
For that alone, we have them to thank. They should be well compensated for their sacrifice.
It’s the following generations that have really screwed it up. They’ve been robbed. And the theft continues to this day.
Well, I am certainly disgusted by the generational hate on this link. However, I do believe that the greatest generation was matured by their circumstances. They had hard lives and we owed it to them to care for them because of what they left us.
We boomers have had it good for a long time thanks to them. Yes, we did bring in civil rights, equality for women, and protested the evil of vietnaim and war and created great music of all types. But I agree that we did not really know hardship, and raised selfish children who believe they are entitled because they exist. Many of these young ones do not seem to know what paying dues is all about. We helicopter parents never gave our kids a chance to grow up and make their own decisions and they will suffer as a result when America crashes and they really have to be on their own.
We all want to blame others, Liberals, obama, conservatives, whatever, rather than take a honest perusal of how we all created this mess. We will believe talk show hosts before we will research things out. Obama is a socialist or a marxist. Say that to a Canadian or european and they will burst out in laughter. They have real communist parties and true liberal parties in those countries.
Facism/socialism is not left wing, it is right wing. Marxism is government controlling the means of production, Facism is corporations /industrialists controlling the means of government. Both parties in this country are owned by corporations, so where do you think we are headed.
Americans like Prescott Bush, Ford, Charles Lindberg and others believed in facism and gave Hitler plenty of support by laundering money for him and keeping us from entering the war. It was only when Hitler turned out to be a nut, that they decided to get rid of him.
We are Germany in the 30′s, the media propaganda machine is putting out lies.
Putting trust in the so called free market Ayn Rand /Milton friedman neo-liberal economics has destroyed every country where it has been tried starting with the South American cone in the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s, Russia in the 90′s and now America.
We forgot about the common good, the basis of true capitalism as Adam Smith would put it, in our lust for the American myth of indivualism, the I’ve got mine, the hell with you.
Sorry, no man can do it on his own. After spending centuries killing each other, the Europeans discovered that taking care of each other would have long term benefits,that preventative medicine would keep people in a state of wellness, and create productive workers. The fact that we are unwilling to take care of our own shows how far down the scale we have sunk.
We got too greedy, fought wars we can’t afford, no longer made products in our country, stopped spending money on our own infastructure while giving Halliburton and others billions to blow in Iraq.
Blame anyone you want, but unless we all come together and work on doing what’s right for America and our common good, we will collapse into anarchy, just as every major empire has done in history, for the same reasons.
Vote for RON PAUL 2012.
One problem that’s going to eventually bite all of us is property taxes–the fact that we have been bilked out of the right of home ownership (when you’ve paid off your mortgage that is) and are stuck renting at ever-increasing rates, from our local governments. Millions will soon become homeless as taxes and tax auctions remove homes from the middle class and working poor, and transfer all that land to the wealthy and powerful.
We must restore home ownership in America by abolishing property taxes on primary domiciles. Shelter is an essential, both for physical survival and mental health.
basspig.wordpress.com
The $ was there. The gov’t stole it from us to feed all the unelected burecrats you know the dept of ed, dept of eng, the dept of steaql some more $ and do nuthin. The gov’t IS and ALLWAYS will be our #1 enemy. Not the muslims or jews or chicoms its our own gov’t!!
If you sell 2 fighter planes now used in Iraq, you should have sufficient money to pay for the pensions off all baby-boomers in your country.
there is a lot this article doesn’t say…..fact is-the money IS there.it is in special treasury bonds,mainly…..4.5 trillion worth.and,the government now owes this money to SS….because They have borrowed against it .all those griping about tax cuts have not taken into account the fact that by law when Social Security was first written ,and by the constitution in article six and the fourteenth amendment (you didn’t think the republicans want to get rid of the fourteenth amendment because of anchor babies,did you ?)the government must be good for its debts .currently ,there is nothing wrong with Social Security that can’t be fixed by simply doing what they did in 1994 -transfer funds from OASI to DI-that gets us to 2039 all by itself -than raise the income cap from 106,000 to 250,000 -that fixes it for a long to come .http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11943&zzz=41347
the only part of the Federal budget that Social Security has any part of is what the government owes it -because Social Security is one of the government’s biggest CREDITORS.
those republicans who want to privatize Social Security are like :
a man who has a good and generous friend -
and Borrows money from him -
and before that debt comes due-
decides to kill him ,and steal the rest of his money .
there is no other way to look at it .
those who say the money is no longer there,
and has been stolen -well it is still there -
in those special treasury bonds.
they are backed the same as other securities ,
or that $20.00 bill in your pocket .
Seems to me the tenor of this article is to plant the idea that it is all gone ,and that we can write it off .that is propaganda .
the government can’t get rid of its debt by writing off the retirement fund we who make less than $106,000.00 have paid into .
So Bernie Madoff gets 150 years in jail, for redirecting billions of dollars to his pals (probably half or more of which will be recovered) but the biggest ponzi scheme of all was run by the governments. Representatives stood up in congress, or parliament, depending on which country you live in, and said the government pension plans were insolvent at the moment they started, and nobody listened.
And the suckers (that’s us) who have had 7 to 14% of their income stolen by the government for their whole working lives ostensibly for a pension plan are being blamed for its insolvency.
The usual blame the victim stuff.
As riveting as the article is, the commentary has been just as enlightening a read. Thank you all for your comments. I am an early Gen-X’er and I am afraid… not for myself, but for my parents, that we will not be able to give to them what they gave to us… the basics of nuture and care when they need it most. I am also afraid for the next generation, our children, because of the sense of entitlement which is so prevalent. “Spare the rod, spoil the child” and “reap what you sow” are going to become VERY meaningful as the next generation enters adulthood.
You will do fine if you all stick together.. There are still plenty of good kids around.
Before you take up residence in a bridge underpass or open the first can of cat food, why not get a free library card and read how to free range chickens and grow food from seeds and live off the land? You are smarter than that. You aren’t a wild animal you are resourceful and determined. You don’t need any nanny state gov’t to take care of you. You have family and friends who will care for you and you will start to depend on your community as they will count on you. If you are in the city now and things look bleak, ditch that cell phone and McDonalds hamburger and get to the country. Learn to fish and hunt and grow. Learn to build a new life for yourself. Don’t give up.
So Bernie Madoff gets 150 years in jail, for redirecting billions of dollars to his pals (probably half or more of which will be recovered) but the biggest ponzi scheme of all was run by the governments. Representatives stood up in congress, or parliament, depending on which country you live in, and said the government pension plans were insolvent at the moment they started, and nobody listened. And the suckers (that’s us) who have had 7 to 14% of their income stolen by the government for their whole working lives ostensibly for a pension plan are being blamed for its insolvency. The usual blame the victim stuff.
We have had since at least the 70′s to do something about the oil crisis (big oil made sure we did nothing, and the auto industry continued to make gas guzzlers). I have been hearing about the Social Security Crisis for years and we did nothing. This is pure corporate America taking everything for themselves and F everyone else. They want to take ALL of your retirement money whether it is in social security or stealing your 401K (“Well, you know some years in the stock market are bad.”) I want every single one of them to go to prison. If we all get on some social network to get notified we can orchestrate a run on a single bank. I have heard it can be done. You heard me. We can destroy a single bank all in one day if we all show up on the same day and demand our money.
I say lets do it. If we are going to live under a bridge, we may as well take down the banks too.
I don’t think we’ve heard the last of it and the 1 percenters better start thinking of the consequences of their greed. They will have to live through it too and it might not be pretty from the sounds of it.
I had to reply to this. All you Yanks do is getting cought up pulling each other apart. Blame this or blame that. Kick out the thieves in DC and confiscate the cash the stole. Get out of all the countries you try to control. Bring your military home to prosecute wallstreet and those other pupets and there will be plenty of cash for all of you. But it is much easier to watch TV and eat junk and blame someone else.
“What are we going to do…?” What most of the population of the world has always done: starve to death.
Baby Boomers have made impossible for me to live on my own. I finished high school and vocational school, then tried working under Baby Boom managers in the workplace. They couldn’t treat me ethically. Then I finished several years of college to complete two associate technical degrees. I was allowed to work six months at each of my next two jobs, before I was laid off at each of them. Baby Boomers tend to be snobs about college who won’t hire anyone without a bachelor’s degree and experience, and they won’t give up their jobs even after retirement because they want to “double dip”, like certain Baby Boom officials I know in our school district. I can’t wait until the gray ceiling starts to break down and Generation X is in control of the USA!!!
If anybody cares to reseach a little, social security was started as an “Insurance” program. You can view this as a tax if you want to, but was designed for the working class and was supposed to be separate from the general budget. If the politicians had not “stolen” the money into the general budget, there would be money there. In fact, is was supposed to draw interest and increase (just like bonds). First step, would be to place all of the money that was supposed to be there (including interest) and move it out of the general budget. As Meremark suggested, remove the cap on SS withholding…pay the 7% on everthing you make! That should just about take care of it. Think it will happen. Not likely
Just Thinking
[...] On January 1st, 2011 the very first of the Baby Boomers started to reach the age of 65. Now more than 10,000 Baby Boomers will be turning 65 every single day for the next two decades. So where in the world are we going [...]
THIS MESS STARTED IN THE 1970S, BECAUSE OF GREED FOR THE RICH, THE LEADERS OF THE USA NEW IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, THE FACT IS THEY DID NOT CARE
NOW BY GOD FIX IT
ya’ll are unbleavable.. do yall not know that all this blaber isnt going to help the the aconimy..we need someone rightiouse to stand up.. the lord is on our sides if only we would be on his..i know the population is going up and every year arpoxamilty 78 million people are born..ya the numbers are high..we need to pray get on our knees ask the lord for forginness for all our sins..do you not think that 911 just happend for no reason.. of cores not we fell away from the lord..and those few days after it happened churches were filled overflowing..but a month or two we were back to are usual selfs..we cant not not sin were human beings but we need to try to be more like the lord to try to walk closer with him..right now were like the isrelites sinning not repenting the lords giving us a chance were just not taking it..he will answer us in our time of need..im saying this with experince..we need to ask for forgivness and pray…he will help
Yeap!That’s a heavy job for young people.They have to produce more money.But you all have a problem?From were to make more money?The world economy is in big trouble.
Amazing! All the finger pointing and ignorance. The fact is that even if the entire US military was eliminated overnight there wouldn’t be enough to pay for SS and Medicare. If only it was as easy as leaving us completely defenseless. The fact is that the current and past administration are using the conflicts to keep our economy from stalling (Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Iran…) but it will fail soon. Our economy can’t be fixed as in the 1990′s we went to a service based economy (NAFTA) thus there is no longer an infrastructure to resurrect. It’s all south of the border and overseas now. The fact is that SS was not meant to be a full featured retirement program. Those who wasted their youth not preparing for retirement and voting for promises of more and more goodies deserve what little they get. Our dollar is a fiat currency and fiat currencies last an average of 40 years. The .com bubble, housing bubble, bond bubble, dollar bubble… it’s been obvious for years to everyone except those who believe politicians. At least you had a good time blowing your wealth. Some of you really need to read a book and learn about how the world works. There is opportunity even in this. You can set yourself up to build wealth or you can whine, blame and sit on your hands waiting for politicians who will never rise to the challenge as you starve.