Posted on 11/06/2015 7:11:59 AM PST by Academiadotorg
When academics are ready to fix a problem, hold onto your wallets.
“America’s middle class faces a growing retirement crisis,†Christian Weller and Teresa Ghilarducci write in an issue brief for the Center for American Progress (CAP). “More than half of all working-age households are expected to be at risk of having to cut back their standard of living—often making painful adjustments—when they retire. “
“There are several reasons for the ever-larger looming crisis, but people’s inability to save enough money is a key obstacle to achieving more retirement security. On average, Americans need to save between 10 percent and 20 percent of their salaries each year outside of Social Security to ensure a secure retirement. Yet nearly one-third of working-age Americans have no retirement savings or pension, and less than half of all private-sector workers participated in a retirement plan at work in 2013, the last year for which data are available.â€
Weller is a senior fellow at CAP and a professor at the University of Massachusetts. Ghilarducci is director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School for Social Research.
The problem as they see it is threefold:
“First, existing savings incentives can be overwhelming and incredibly complex.†“Second, savings incentives often benefit higher-income earners more than middle- and lower-income earners.†“Third, even as the savings incentives fail to prepare households adequately for retirement, the public loses out on increasingly large amounts of tax revenue that otherwise would have been collected without these tax breaks.“ In remarks at CAP, Ghilarducci repeatedly referred to the contributions Americans make to plans such as IRAs as “subsidies,†“tax expenditures,†and “money on the table.â€
In a panel discussion at CAP on the day before Halloween, Ghilarducci’s characterization of individual savings plans was echoed by New York University Law professor Lily Batchelder who characterized employee retirement accounts as “sort of like the government dumps the subsidy into your 401K.â€
That academics view individual earnings as government subsides is problematic enough, especially for the individuals. Even eerier, that notion has taken hold in the U. S. government, particularly during the current presidential administration, where Batchelder served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the National Economic Council.
Ghilarducci is an economic advisor to Hillary Clinton.
Academics who all have nice fat TIAA-CREF accounts.
The progressives are urgently looking for new sources of OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY (other than that of their cronies, of course).
Lots of people will be decorating lamp posts around America if they try to seize IRAs/401k, etc.
The US Government is $19 Trillion in debt. Obama alone has added $9 Trillion
The USA faces a tidal wave of Soc. Sec. and Medicare expenses
The result is - any property you have is not safe
She’s baaaaaccckkkk...Ghilarducci
Everything you ‘own’ belongs to the government. They just allow you to keep a little out of generosity.
America is regressing to the outmoded Leninism of the old Soviet Union.
Ironic that both Russia and China are busily moving in the other direction.
After enormous expenditures of gold and lives in the Cold War, America surrenders to communism without a shot being fired.
Yep, but their inability comes for their poor financial judgment and decision making skills. They put all of their income into lifestyle (elaborate vacations, the latest consumer electronics, eating out rather than cooking, high end cars, etc.) and none into savings.
In other words, a ‘comfortable retirement’ has become an entitlement, not merely a goal.
Unless the grandson decides to go to college or trade school. I tied every thing into trust funds. I left the grandson’s money in a trust fund for education, and not any thing else, if he does not go for higher ed or tech school for a trade, they he has to wait until he is 25.
Eliminated probate that way and possible lawsuits.
Said the fox to the farmer, “I’ll guard your henhouse. Trust me.”
>> Lots of people will be decorating lamp posts around America if they try to seize IRAs/401k, etc.
I personally think academics look really cool hanging from lampposts. Every university town should have a few (dozen) decorated lampposts.
The grifters are saying in a nice way, “we’re about to pickpocket you but don’t touch mine”. Maybe the socialists should go live in Venezuela and see the end results of their madness.
Academics who all have nice fat TIAA-CREF accounts.
...
And many of them have an income that is largely due to Big Government.
>> In other words, a ‘comfortable retirement’ has become an entitlement, not merely a goal.
You left out “equitable”, as in “EVERYONE is entitled to a comfortable, equitable retirement, regardless of gender, race, sexual preference, creed, ability, or work hostory”.
I made my heirs wait till they are 60. They can work and have the money that will continue to grow for retirement.
“You didn’t make that.”
Excellent resource.
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