Why your parents are ripping you off

BBC News ^ | Tuesday, 23 March, 2004 | By Laurence Kotlikoff

[cupcakes]

If you are saving it for 25 yrs out, I doubt you'll get much since a good number of the boomers will have kicked off by then. You'll be threatening an already strapped generation of xers and y with something when they would be happy right now with reform.

[palmer]

The simple fact is the government has promised some $40 trillion to seniors, government retirees, foreign bondholders, etc. That's roughly $400,000 per American family. I don't know about the rest of you, but I would have a hard time affording a 30 year payment schedule for that amount (I'm 41). Add in my share of the freeloaders and I'm way under.

If the politicians don't cut benefits we would either be forced to default at least partially or hyperinflate our currency into economic catastrophe.

[headsonpikes]

Gee whiz, even Americans can't make socialism work.

Who'da thunk it?

[Glenn]

The system is broken, and cannot continue in this fashion.

I've been hearing that for at least the 27 years I've been working and paying. Every fix is worse than the last. Best of luck to you geniuses in getting it right.

[FITZ]

The government could pay back what you and your employer put in plus the typical interest rate for a bank savings account reflecting each year they had your money, then when you use it up in Social Security and/or Medicare, stop the payments. Then people can either keep working, or start taking out reverse mortgages on their homes and using up their investments. End the other welfare programs now --- end food stamps, WIC, NAFTA-TAA, government housing etc and let everyone work for what they want.

[holdmuhbeer]

bump

[Incorrigible]

[general_re]

Every fix is worse than the last.

That's because the real fix is politically unpalatable, albeit tolerably obvious. Benefits will have to be reduced, or the retirement age will have to be raised, or payroll taxes will have to rise, or some combination thereof. Any other proposed "solution" - besides scrapping it entirely, of course - is a shell game. But, speaking broadly, the greyhairs don't want benefits to be cut, the boomers don't want the retirement age to be raised, and neither the boomers nor the x-er's want payroll taxes to rise, so we keep applying duct tape and coathangers to keep an increasingly infirm system propped up. Eventually it'll crash, and those steps will be the only remedies available - the only question is how much pain we're willing to tolerate by waiting for that day, because the longer we wait, the more painful that fix gets.

[general_re]

Carousel!

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1982) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details.

[joebuck]

"These reforms include asking the current rich and middle class elderly to help pay off existing government pension liabilities..."

So essentially the Govt. will be saying to millions of Americans, "Hey we blew the money you've been giving us for 30 years to save for your retirement so you will have to start all over."

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Your father may have died at age 63 and never collected a penny of his social security, but if your mother is still alive at age 65 she will collect hers and his. That may actually be a good thing for her.

[guitfiddlist]

I'm 44. Looking at the demographics, there is NO way I will collect a dime. As somebody once joked, "By the time our generation retires, we'll all be depending on 6 Burger King workers for our Social Security."

So no use crying over long-ago spilled milk, it's clear that SS...or the SS Titanic, is going down and it is only a matter of time before hypertaxation and/or hyperinflation ensues. But I'm interested in what other Freepers have to suggest to go against the herd to survive. Precious metals? Moving to Costa Rica? Any thoughts...

[zeugma]

If they'd just raise the retirement age to 80-90 it would go a long way towards helping things out a bit.

I'm not going to pay the 70%+ tax rates that are going to be necessary to support retirees. I'll not ask my children to do so either.

[Incorrigible]

[Dan from Michigan]

I have the perfect solution. Unfortunatly, too many will refuse the solution.

End it.

[Incorrigible]

Related Thread:

We boomers will bust the federal budget (Mulshine)

 

[Dad was my hero]

Not to turn this into a debate about abortion, but 45,000,000 dead since Roe v Wade has helped depopulate the ages that would be paying for these socialist programs.

[BureaucratusMaximus]

The only thing that bothers me about this article is the notion that kids won't take care of their parents. I'm sure most people don't have a problem about taking care of their own parents, its the stranger down the street, and the geezer using his SS to go on his monthly golf trip that angers most. (self included) I figure it should be a natural and heartfelt reaction to take care of our parents financially, if ever the need came up. I know I will. All parents arent perfect, at best they deserve honor from their kids...whether a dad was a good father, or a mean nasty sonofabitch. JMHO.

[general_re]

There's a remake in the works, but there's apparently no truth to the rumors that in the new version, Logan decides to flee to Sanctuary because of his massive FICA deductions ;)