Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Thoughts on Pensions / Social Security
Here comes another bailout. This time for private Pensions.
I was talking with one of my co-workers today about Social Security and he said that it was a joke anyway. I said it may be a joke to you now but for 20 million people retiring in 2010 it will be their only source of income because they have no savings, 401k's or Pensions. The government has promised that they will get paid - that means you have to pay them from your paycheck. He didn't believe me. He thought he heard that we can reduce taxes, eliminate social security and somehow by him going shopping money would go into the economy and somehow to these old people. Amazing. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Social Security is a debt owed by workers to retirees, period; unless we as a nation are willing to watch old folks die in abject poverty.
With so many pension plans going belly up, even with backup from the broke Pension Guarantee Credit Corp, payouts will be substantially less than what these retirees were expecting. This means that even folks, like my co-worker, who felt that they would not need to rely on Social Security will absolutely need that Social Security check every month even if it is a paltry $1200. My kids' taxes, and mine since I won't retire until I am 70, will be astronomical to pay for today's greed and stupidity. Our future is being stolen from us.
Here comes another bailout. This time for private Pensions.
I was talking with one of my co-workers today about Social Security and he said that it was a joke anyway. I said it may be a joke to you now but for 20 million people retiring in 2010 it will be their only source of income because they have no savings, 401k's or Pensions. The government has promised that they will get paid - that means you have to pay them from your paycheck. He didn't believe me. He thought he heard that we can reduce taxes, eliminate social security and somehow by him going shopping money would go into the economy and somehow to these old people. Amazing. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Social Security is a debt owed by workers to retirees, period; unless we as a nation are willing to watch old folks die in abject poverty.
With so many pension plans going belly up, even with backup from the broke Pension Guarantee Credit Corp, payouts will be substantially less than what these retirees were expecting. This means that even folks, like my co-worker, who felt that they would not need to rely on Social Security will absolutely need that Social Security check every month even if it is a paltry $1200. My kids' taxes, and mine since I won't retire until I am 70, will be astronomical to pay for today's greed and stupidity. Our future is being stolen from us.
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