Standards of Life in the Future: Think Grim

ap ^ | Monday, March 6, 2006 | by Ben Stein

[WakeUpAndVote]

read later.

[Gay State Conservative]

Sounds like Ben Stein grew up at my father's knee....or lived through the Depression.

Save,save and save some more was always my Dad's motto through life.

[sgtbono2002]

Ben has a few bucks and I guess he is used to being spoiled. I go to a car dealer and they jump me as soon as I hit the lot. They watch out the window like vultures and you cant get your foot on the ground before one of them comes bugging you. They act like they are starving to death. Geez- I want to take a minute and look on my own a while.

But Ben is right service has gone to hell. You cant get any business on the phone now unless you listen to a computer and push buttons. Forget the government or the phone company-too many buttons. I saw an ad on TV the other day saying they had a real person on the phone. so I guess they may ne starting to wake up.

[palmer]

And for the leading edge of the Boomers is: It's too late.

Is this a sentence? The article as a whole meanders and is almost pointless except for the truisms about saving.

[joe fonebone]

My answer to poor customer service and rudeness is quite simple.......confront it!!!! you pay full price for a seat, and someone moves you, get management involved!! If a clerk treats you rudely, get management involved!!! If there is no managment available, take down the address, do business elsewhere, and fire off a letter to the owners of the business!!! If you cannot understand someone because they are not good at speaking english, demand an english speaking person!!! It is really just that simple....

[DB]

Your father is right.

[kerryusama04]

110K if you own 2 houses??? But wait - put your money in a mutual fund and you'll be fine? Rubbish. Putting your money in a tax deferred plan hoping that Al Gore never gets elected and taxes the crap out of it on the back end is stupid.

[Hardastarboard]

I usually get good service where ever I go, if I'm polite and ask for it.

As far as not running out of money in retirement, I'll have Social Security. (Do I really need the /sarcasm tag here?)

[MNJohnnie]

Oh, yeah...give what money you may have now to Wall Street...that's "brilliant."

Considering that if you had done that you would have about 20 times MORE in your retirement plan then you get from "giving it to the Government" that IS brilliant. But that right, don't let the facts get in the way of a satisfying Neo-Socialist rant.

[Flavius]

another thing, was not great depression helped with stock market crash

so to prevent another great depression he advocates investing in magical investment funds

so when they crash you really are going to be feeling grim

[Charlotte Corday]

One of the reasons that boomers have no savings is that 15% of their paychecks have been withheld to fund the retirement Airstreams and Callaways of the generation that preceded them.

[ConsentofGoverned]

IT is abundantly clear= the CFR and Ivy League educators - want a weak USA with globalism the goal..so we do not enforce our borders, allow third world labor to flood the USA, enter into free trade that just drains more jobs from USA..all to gain this One world citizen who has no alliance to Nations-, the only problem is the standard of living must fall to the average living standard across the globe..Americans the slums of the poorest countries in the world are where we are headed. Our only hope is political leaders who rebuke this free trade globalism and we again protect our JOBS and our Borders..otherwise fellow citizens we are headed for much lower standards of living.

[MNJohnnie]

Of course the fact that the Chicken Littles have no crystal balls and have no clue never stops them for screaming about the "coming great crash". Funny thing, it always seem to be NEXT year that the "great crash" is coming. Then when it DOES NOT, they merely change the date. Maybe it is the ASSUMPTIONS of the Chicken Littles that is wrong instead of the DATE?

[Flavius]

he maybe was just p/ed off because he could not buy his caddy
maybe his world crashed

[moasicwolf]

Here we have another complainer with those terrible things called expectations.

I did some smart things when I joined the military during the Viet Nam era when everyone else thought I was nuts. Now, after 30 years service behind me and an adequate retirement, plus making those sacrifices as a young man and putting what I could in a good mutual fund I feel very comfortable about life and the future.

I have no expectations from anyone; never have, never will. I never owned a Cadillac or any high end vehicle for that matter, never flown first class unless the airline agent felt like giving a military person an upgrade, (which happened once) and am perfectly happy growing my own vegetables, and seeing the sun rise each day.

[palmer]

Yeah, doesn't seem to understand the difference between saving and speculation. There are investments across that spectrum, but his recommendations are all speculative.

[Eurotwit]

bookmark

[ConsentofGoverned]

"I have no expectations from anyone; never have, never will."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..............
I am also a nam vet, but pal the USA of today is much changed and with the open borders and free trade crowd future Americans will not have the ability to provide for themselves as You and I..a simple life is fine when it is a choice..it is a curse when forced on you by a failing economy