A Path to Retirement, for Those Far From It
nytimes.com
A Path to Retirement, for Those Far From It
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: A Path to Retirement, for Those Far From It
#2The article as a whole seems fairly sound to me, but in the second paragraph it says "strengthen Social Security". That implies, to me, that Social Security, is something worth saving. Social Security, as a program is not just close to bankrupt finacially, but also morally.
That's because, unlike the other government programs, Social Security (and Medicare), are neither investments in the future (education, roads, defense), or helping the needy (Medicaid, SNAP). Social Security, is in the simplest sense of it, taxing the young, and giving it to the old. That's despite the fact that the old are doing far better than young people economically. [1]
[1] http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/story/2011-11-0...
Re: A Path to Retirement, for Those Far From It
#3The article as a whole seems fairly sound to me, but in the second paragraph it says "strengthen Social Security". That implies, to me, that Social Security, is something worth saving. Social Security, as a program is not just close to bankrupt finacially, but also morally. That's because, unlike the other government programs, Social Security (and Medicare), are neither investments in the future (education, roads, de…
The idea being that our young will do the same for us.
Re: A Path to Retirement, for Those Far From It
#4Exactly what is %15 for 30 years going to get me but delayed poverty? The standard retirement language in this piece is just bs peddled by money managers that I've been hearing all my working career.
Re: A Path to Retirement, for Those Far From It
#5The article as a whole seems fairly sound to me, but in the second paragraph it says "strengthen Social Security". That implies, to me, that Social Security, is something worth saving. Social Security, as a program is not just close to bankrupt finacially, but also morally. That's because, unlike the other government programs, Social Security (and Medicare), are neither investments in the future (education, roads, de…
The idea being that our young will do the same for us.
Yeah, but the fact is that today and into the future, people will be having fewer children. Therefore, as the amount of retiring people increases, and the number of people working decreases, the ponzi scheme collapses.
Re: A Path to Retirement, for Those Far From It
#6The article as a whole seems fairly sound to me, but in the second paragraph it says "strengthen Social Security". That implies, to me, that Social Security, is something worth saving. Social Security, as a program is not just close to bankrupt finacially, but also morally. That's because, unlike the other government programs, Social Security (and Medicare), are neither investments in the future (education, roads, de…
The idea being that our young will do the same for us.
Honestly I wish we'd just admit that it's going down. I have no illusions that I'll ever receive any SS; can't we just phase it out so that anyone who's say, 30, won't receive any, and tell them now?
Re: A Path to Retirement, for Those Far From It
#7The article as a whole seems fairly sound to me, but in the second paragraph it says "strengthen Social Security". That implies, to me, that Social Security, is something worth saving. Social Security, as a program is not just close to bankrupt finacially, but also morally. That's because, unlike the other government programs, Social Security (and Medicare), are neither investments in the future (education, roads, de…
> Social Security, is in the simplest sense of it, taxing the young, and giving it (without strings at all) to the old.
Except that that's not how Social Security was originally intended to work except at the very start, when there was no trust fund built up. The original intent was that people's contributions would go into a trust fund which would appreciate in value over time, so that payments to current retirees would come largely from the trust fund, not from current receipts from workers.
The problem was that the trust fund appreciated in value so well that our statesmanlike politicians decided they could siphon money from it in exchange for IOUs. Which is why the trust fund is now close to insolvent, because instead of being full of the earnings from past contributions, it's full of IOUs from the Treasury that, as the fraction of the population that's retired continues to increase, the Treasury won't be able to pay back fast enough.
In short, what's morally bankrupt is not Social Security as it was intended, but our politicians who could not resist stealing the money from it instead of using it as it was intended.
Re: A Path to Retirement, for Those Far From It
#8The article as a whole seems fairly sound to me, but in the second paragraph it says "strengthen Social Security". That implies, to me, that Social Security, is something worth saving. Social Security, as a program is not just close to bankrupt finacially, but also morally. That's because, unlike the other government programs, Social Security (and Medicare), are neither investments in the future (education, roads, de…
The idea being that our young will do the same for us.
I think what you mean is, we'll do the same to our young. Two Wrights might have made an airplane, but two wrongs don't make a right.
Re: A Path to Retirement, for Those Far From It
#9Interesting. At a first glance it looks like a condensed version of boogleheads. [1]
Also I didn't know who William Bernstein was but I found this interesting Google Talk he gave on the macroeconomics of global prosperity. [2]
[1] http://www.bogleheads.org/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTUZXwQwUJM
Re: A Path to Retirement, for Those Far From It
#10I've liked other stuff by William Bernstein. His book "The Birth of Plenty" is excellent. I haven't read the pamphlet mentioned in the article, but I just downloaded it.
I'll be interested to see what his advice is to younger people now. At least in the past, he was not quite the typical scold. I always liked this quote:
'An optimist might cite this as an example of the "magic of compound interest." Too much is made of this phenomenon. A pessimist would note that our industrious saver died an old man without enjoying his fortune; had he consumed even a few percent of it each year his estate would have been vastly smaller. Personally, I’d rather be a 26 year old roaming the boulevards of Paris with a few francs in my pocket than a rich old man. Everyone cannot be rich, but perhaps their grandchildren can.' (from: http://www.efficientfrontier.com/BOOK/chapter2.htm)