You could increase the taxes on pensions to return them to sane levels.
I feel wary of doing this because I feel this is what's going to happen with my IRAs. I was promised that if I pay my taxes now I don't have to pay them when I'm old, but supposed the next generation decides they want to change the rules. Do I just pound sand and give up? Pensioners were given a promise and now we're changing the rules. It feels wrong even if the promise was unrealistic.
Might be wrong but based on the numbers probably inevitable.
Cutting existing benefits is the only way to avoid bankruptcy in many states and cities. The long term solution is to switch to a defined contribution plan instead of defined benefits. The reason why many on the right are wary of government programs is because they’ve watched the government horribly mismanage their tax money over and over and over again. It’s not necessarily because politicians and bureaucrats are ne…
> the government is generally not incentivized to do a good job, since they don’t face competitive pressure like businesses in the private market. Isn't that exactly the kind of mindset that facilitated this whole situation in the very first place? "Government can't handle money, that's why we gotta privatize everything". And if that would be true, how come it wasn't a private business that took us the moon, with all…
1. So, what tangible benefits did you get from the country going to the moon? How has it affected your everyday life? Sure, we have more space based stuff, but most of those things don't contribute anything to our well-being. No new mining operations on the moon for new resources. Nothing. Sure, maybe in the very long term it will have a return, but now, nothing. All the auxiliary inventions from it were already possible without going to the moon itself, just continuing space exploration.
2. And the government was facing competition like a private business. Soviet Russia provided the competition. If Russia didn't, there's no reason for the US to. In that way, even the moon landings were operating capitalistically, just on a higher level. Most of the resulting inventions from it anyways were for bettering weapons of war than anything truly substantial for the people. So, we went to the moon, cool.
Happened in the private sector. Most millennials don't trust pensions and prefer 401k. As you are in control of the money and there isn't much that could be changed unfavorably in 50 years.
A government changing its mind about pensions could easily change its mind about the favorable tax treatment of 401ks. Or go even further and follow HN's exhortations to implement a wealth tax. Upper-middle-class retirement funds are a huge component of inequality; reducing that can only be good, right?
You pay tax when withdrawing funds from 401k. Worst case they'll remove the 401k and force everyone to migrate to a Roth IRA. Which is the same as the status quo...aka not that bad.
As for Roth IRA. I don't trust the government to honor their end of the deal. I can see them taxing withdrawals for the top 10% in the future.