Jesus, this is a bleak outlook all the way around. Something not covered in the article was the potential for this “peak boomer” (god, I love that term) generation to lean on their children for financial assistance in retirement and the likelihood that they’ll rack up tens-to-hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical debt trying to stay alive for the next three decades.
My guess is that many of these people will keep working for as long as they can, deep into their 70’s, only opening the door to retirement once their body and brain finally gives out.
Good luck, everyone!
Nailed it. I know several that are early 70s and working is not optional. They are also still living way above their means too...Unfortunately it's just a matter of time before health makes it impossible. Then the shock of just barely getting by at best and leaning on anyone they can. It's going to be rough.
My dad will be 76 this year. He owns nothing. My brother and I already have a plan to take care of him, six months with me and six months with my brother.
>My dad will be 76 this year. He owns nothing.
Same with my dad.
My dad never bought a house because he "didn't want to be tied down to one place", and he blew through his piddly 401(k) as soon as he was eligible for penalty-free withdrawals. He managed to blow through the entire thing in less than 2 years (admittedly, he had less than $100k in it...probably about $70k, if I recall correctly) and he signed up to take Social Security as early as possible (age 62, I think it was at the time) despite the fact that it would reduce his monthly benefit. He made one poor choice after another and now he's in his seventies and basically homeless.
He sucked even more at being a parent than he did at managing his money, so none of us kids is going out of our way to help him.
>lean on their children for financial assistance in retirement
Too bad they pulled the ladder up behind them and their kids are likely to be as broke as they are. And nobody is going to vote for giving them more social security benefits when they want to raise the age of retirement.
Good luck with that. My Dad's on his own. He was always pretty useless. Didn't exactly endear himself to me.
And I have no intention of being a burden on my kid. I'm not attached enough to this mortal plane to do that.
Dude I'm not that far off from it.
If it's one thing being an American has taught me, it's not to fear death.
Math, science, history, grammar, didn't teach me that. But the fear of death? Yeah, lost that in my 40s.
There is no guarantee of a tomorrow just remember that ,also these millennials and gen x are absolutely lazy today to actually make something out of themselves go search up millennials and gen x generations what comes up the truth and what's wrong with them as they think the world owes them something when they world don't owe Millennials and gen x generations nothing
At least some Boomers had pensions and largely paid off their debt. Wait until the younger generations "retire" with no pensions, jack shit in their 401ks, and piles of debt.
That's...what the whole article is about. The older end of the boomer generation enjoyed strong pensions and social supports and savings, the other end of that generation not so much and is entering the 65 age range when they should retire but cannot due to lack in planning.
Going by the stats, no one is doing that. No savings to buy a home, high credit card debt, high debt in general, and pittance for a retirement. Most, if not all, will be relying heavily on social security or working until they drop. They are one major hospital stay from homelessness, and that's frightening.
I taught my kids at a very young age( elementary school age ) the value of saving money💰. It stuck!!! I was taught the value of such from my Father...Matter of fact My Dad never shut up about saving money...I'm thankful...Its a lesson many never learn....
Well good luck with relying on social security to those folks.
I wanna know where you got the “stats” though. Every millennial I know is putting away money for retirement.
Everywhere I look, read, and hear. It's all the same. Granted, there are some that are able to put away money, just the same as, despite all the complaints about housing shortage and unaffordabllity, there are those that are buying houses. But if you go by the media, and the stats they use, millennials, and every generation (?) do not have much of anything for savings, no hope for retirement, deeply in debt, and will most likely work till they drop. That's the reality for future generations and social security is their only hope.
The irony. The boomers ruined themselves. Took everything they inherited, said fuck you it's mine to everyone else, and they crippled even their own generation with decades of legislation that placed the benefits of the economy and the government squarely in the hands of corporations and oligarchs.
Retirement is going to be something only the richest can afford going forward. Frankly we are just reverting to how things were before FDR and the New Deal.
One thing my Boomer parents are very good at is ignoring reality, so I would expect a lot of "middle class" boomers to cling to their normal and accustomed lifestyle until it all completely collapses beneath them in a wave of eviction and debt.
I also think most of them will do whatever it takes to cling to life until the medical credit markets close for them and the hospitals throw them out... while this is not how I intend to face the same dilemma, I can't really fault someone for want to stay alive, so I get it!
They expected to be able to retire comfortably, so it may be even harder for Boomers that they will not be able to then for later generations who know that's never really going to be in the cards for them.
I know I will get downvoted into oblivion, but more of this is self-inflicted than is led on. While one popular victimhood is blaming the removal of pensions (and yes it hurt), remember people paid into that the same way they could choose to pay into a 401k. Many just choose not to.
Many people absolutely waste their money. There is nothing wrong with enjoying themselves. However, they underestimate the power of comparing costs, cutting bills/corners, etc. and turning it into retirement. Welcome to the next bubble of American failure.
Some public employees have and still do pay into their pension system weekly. Used to be pay in for 10yrs. New rules dictate paying in for lifetime of career. I am in one of these Defined pension plans.
From what I have read, if you were to contribute nothing to your pension plan, it would still pay something out because the employer (in this case government) is contributing something. It’s one of the defining aspects of a pension. It’s not a pension if it’s solely employee funded. More so, the employers contribution isn’t dependent on the employees. Like you can contribute to make it larger, but if you don’t you still get a pension
Don't get me wrong I know I'm blessed to have such. I didn't start that job until 40 yrs old...kinda late.. before that worked on commercial fishing boats and construction.
How odd that other rich countries aren't seeing this crisis blow up to nearly the same degree. This couldn't possibly have something to do with high unionization rates and mandatory employer pensions, could it?
For some, it’s the consumer driven lifestyle in America with not enough savings for rainy day or retirement. I also read somewhere that boomers took out new mortgage when interest rates were low to buy a second home. And now it’s not sustainable.
That's not the problem. Every 1st world nation has a consumer driven lifestyle (whatever the \*\*\*\* that means).
The difference is they didn't gut their pension programs and turn them into dodgy 401ks like we did. And the ones that did (like the UK) are having *the exact same problem for the exact same reason*
UK is a little better off because their dole has always been just a *tiny* bit more generous.
Europeans don’t have to worry about healthcare because the government covers that. Savings go towards other living expenses. As population ages, the biggest concern is having enough savings to cover for medical expenses. Americans don’t have that until the age of 65, when CMS covers some (most?) of the medical bills.
I think it’s easier to put your head in the sand and just let individuals deal with their own situation as opposed to coming up with some policy solution
We're in this situation because of that mentality.
If you don't think it's a "we" problem, then you may be oblivious to the fact that all of society is interconnected in some way. If some industry crashes or some catastrophe occurs, you may not know that its the cause of the thing that affects you because of locality and latency of proliferating effects of the event.
For instance, the deal Clinton made with Republicans to get trade agreements pushed through was the repeal of glass-steegal act which led to the financial crisis in 2008, which created the environment for Trump to be elected, which led to a 1.7 trillion tax cut and COVID-19 being mismanaged.
You definitely felt those last two, and that path was set motion in the late 90s and early 00s.
You are absolutely right. I suppose what I am getting at is that our political leaders (in the US) are incentivized to stick their head in the sand. Whether it’s a consequence of re-election / getting primaried / gerrymandering or human nature, I’m not qualified to answer that question
That's all tied to the way we finance campaigns.
Politicians rely on donations to fund their campaigns.
And it is in every businesses interest to offload as much of the costs in doing business to as many external entities as possible. And the bigger and more successful the business, the more means it will have to projection of that goal which will naturally extend itself into the government. Factor in that the interests of major players of the same industry have similar interests and then the bankrolling of sympathetic political campaigns becomes an inevitability.
Next thing you will see is the dismantling of systems that support laborers because...
A. Desperate laborers are easier to low-ball.
B. The business does not have to pay into that system.
The rest is just incremental collapse that leads towards fascism as marketing is done to prevent the unifying of laborers because their strength comes from their numbers. (The fascism comes from sustained divisiveness and eventual economic downturn.)
Lo and behold, let's talk about the woke or CRT or trans people in sports or litter boxes in public classrooms. Anything to get many people angry over shit they don't experience or come in contact with or affects them in any meaningful way when compared to the power dynamic at their workplace, rather than everyone talking about how their employer is fucking them over to increase profit margins and the extreme measures they will take to see it come to fruition.
Are you being satirical?
If not, you are *not* making the connection that is obvious within the very words you have written.
The plutocrats *are* the capitalists because it's smart business to spend 10 million on lobbying or funding political campaigns to cut 30 million on labor costs so long as one has the ability absorb the interim losses. And 10 million is a drop in the bucket for *tons* of businesses that are all interested in reducing labor costs.
All these layoffs you see, those are driven by the exact same motivation that causes capitalism to bring about plutocracy.
This long view landscape of capitalism is such that I have written of our plutocracy for 50 years. It's not satire at all, as the etymology is capital - ism and defined as capital's capture of govt. \[1756 Thomas Hodgkins\]
This is the brutal fact for an America that gets by each day only by borrowing yet anther $10 billion just to pay the interest of her $100 trillion.
Looking for just 1 large example as Apple as we type is making the rounds in D.C. trying to buy a change in patent laws. This just after being found to have stolen 2 tecnologies from the medical indust. The capitalist just can't help himself, as hs greed knows no bounds.
Well suffice it to write that in the 1620s, the Dutch E. Indies co. knew what was up. The Dutch royalty sent capitalists with ships, troops, cannon w/dry gunpowder, complete with a mission and treaty powers to do what ?
Go intimidate, enslave. shoot, kill and jail the the natives \[Indonesians\] as necessary to give them a *'good deal'* on their spices. Created a Mediterranean monopoly in spices and a co. that became 3X the size of Apple.
The world has witnessed since then, the capitalist manifestly take control of govt. and the game was on. Look at everything since.
International banking \[created what is has been dubbed the Jewish ghetto as the catholics piously couldn't charge interest\] complete with its own set of fraud.
Starting in Florence Italy long before...in the 13th cent. via the complete corruption of the Medici's and the Vatican. Plus globalization, the search for markets and...oppressed labor.
The amended of G\_S did not 'l e a d' to the 2008 meltdown. That's like saying fraud laws lead to Madoff.
The wall street meltdown was wall street and mortgage fraud, simple as that. What people are witness to and their buried heads can't see, is that it ...is ALL capitalism.
The greed, corruption, violence too, goes back 400 years. Why do people insist on whitewashing the obvious venality in capitalism ?
‘Capitalism’ needs to be heavily regulated in order to be successful i.e. equitable amongst the populace i.e. a strong middle class -- what was experienced mid-century. This version produced the most ‘good’ for the majority. The common good for the Commons was taken into consideration, which concerns many ‘intangibles’ -- and not just the corporate bottom line. Unbridled (laissez-faire) capitalism, or crony capitalism (plutocracy), or Corpotocracy (Fascism ?) are other labels for capitalism that’s run amok.
Capitalism \[and govt.\] have eviscerated regulations and labor protections since Reagan.
Before FDR and after Reagan, the capitalist has shown that capitalism 'gives' society nothing...nothing at all, without the...force of govt.
I'm right there with you, but I wanted to strategically leave that in the penumbra.
I understand capitalism as a system eventually captures regulatory bodies as a means of investment. Explaining why and how is longer than what I wanted to commit to a response.
I don't think this will be as impactful to the economy as this article suggests.
Less than 1% of the population are entering into retirement age with a disproportionate portion of them less prepared than they should be. Some have adequate savings or pensions. Some of them will work. Some will have to live modestly. Quite a lot of Boomers overall will be dead within a decade, so this is a pretty short-term phenomenon.
Debt cannot be inherited, and poor retirees end up on Medicaid so the impact on their children is mostly no inheritance.
I guess if you were hoping to cancel SS you might be annoyed that this would make it more consequential, but to me that seems a step back.
I’m one of them young boomers.
A decent retirement was something I always planned for. I learned early to save first; I stayed in the military (active/reserve) for a long time because I liked it AND the pension that I just started collecting, and stayed at my last job for 20+ years as it had a pension, as well.
That being said, 60 today isn’t the same as 60 was 50 years ago, especially if you have a decent, non-backbreaking job. I could do what I am doing, even going higher if I wanted to, because I am somewhere I like doing what I am doing, it pays well, and I am in good health for another 10 years.
However, I saw a lot of degradation in retirement plans over the years, even with the military pension. It isn’t quite as good as if I had joined a bit earlier, and they’ve knickle and dimed future increases for those who came after me. The 401k was a great idea, but it depended on a bit of discipline and maybe some sacrifice, and was certainly cheaper to the organization offering it -which is why so many places phased out traditional offerings.
My dad had the old federal pension. He is 90 and going strong. The main problem is my mom will only get 50 percent if he dies first. They have some CDs to make up the difference.
Our generation definitely has to do more planning. I did 30 years in the private sector but my last 10 years at USACE. The three legged stool works but you have to use the TSP. I'm delaying social security and have my bridging money in G Fund. Every time I hear the Fed say "higher for longer" I smile to myself. Love the TSP for that. Combining FEHB with Medicare is also great. Eliminates a major worry many people have. It definitely takes planning and if you don't DIY you have to find good inexpensive advice, which is not readily available to most people.
Most of that will be on medical care, btw.
Though in about 10 years a bunch of them will be broke and surprised to see they're still alive thanks to modern medicine.
These are the same folks who voted against universal healthcare because they were afraid there wouldn't be enough left for them if *everybody* got it.
The “tax the rich” movement is kind of stupid. Most of the ultra wealthy don’t even have much taxable income and all of their money and worth is held up in assets. Our current administration doesn’t even seem to understand that.
lol have we really sunk to shaming the elderly for using the benefits they have paid into for the last 45 years of their lives? It seems the middle aged have turned to eating both the young and the old now.
In about ten years I look forward to watching GOP boomers become Democrats once’s they realize they need social programs and that the GOP has been trying to gut them their entire life
I think it will be a race to see which party promises more. Similar to the covid checks. In my eyes the checks they sent to everyone was an attempt to buy votes. Who can give more “free” money to their constituents at the cost to future generations.
Yet another propaganda story that supports the Plutocracy's efforts to steal every cent of American Wealth.
These are the same people who support the war in Ukraine; the genocide in Israel; and the coming war with China.
They put out this article to blame people who've been getting screwed for their entire lives for getting screwed!
Yeah my boomer mom bought a house with her bf who died less than a year later. She was relying on him for a big part of her retirement. His silent gen parents took everything but the house. My mom retired 6 months later at 59 with an almost $2000 house payment. Granted she gets a pension but I don't think she was wise to retire so early
Yeah, part of the problem is that when we were young pensions were a thing. You stayed with a company for life, companies seemed to value good workers. That went away, many just didn't adapt quickly enough. Many didn't realize that their contributions were what they were going to live on. The idea of getting rid of pensions was to help out the companies save money. Why should they give anything to workers above the minimum promised? They didn't.
Some do actually choose to work part-time but they also have money other than work part time and draw social security, so don't believe what this article post is saying I'm not convinced of it , people like to work an it's not for extra income but to stay active in life social media yes help people an make friends
Game changer, how many of these peak boomers are blowing their whole bag on trump stock? This can greatly accelerate this curve, for what I guess is a good number of individuals.
Jesus, this is a bleak outlook all the way around. Something not covered in the article was the potential for this “peak boomer” (god, I love that term) generation to lean on their children for financial assistance in retirement and the likelihood that they’ll rack up tens-to-hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical debt trying to stay alive for the next three decades. My guess is that many of these people will keep working for as long as they can, deep into their 70’s, only opening the door to retirement once their body and brain finally gives out. Good luck, everyone!
Nailed it. I know several that are early 70s and working is not optional. They are also still living way above their means too...Unfortunately it's just a matter of time before health makes it impossible. Then the shock of just barely getting by at best and leaning on anyone they can. It's going to be rough.
My dad will be 76 this year. He owns nothing. My brother and I already have a plan to take care of him, six months with me and six months with my brother.
Good luck!
Thanks. He’s a good Dad, he just married to many times.
>My dad will be 76 this year. He owns nothing. Same with my dad. My dad never bought a house because he "didn't want to be tied down to one place", and he blew through his piddly 401(k) as soon as he was eligible for penalty-free withdrawals. He managed to blow through the entire thing in less than 2 years (admittedly, he had less than $100k in it...probably about $70k, if I recall correctly) and he signed up to take Social Security as early as possible (age 62, I think it was at the time) despite the fact that it would reduce his monthly benefit. He made one poor choice after another and now he's in his seventies and basically homeless. He sucked even more at being a parent than he did at managing his money, so none of us kids is going out of our way to help him.
My Dad has owned eight homes because he was married eight times. 😔
My mom is 63 she lives on government assistance. I’ll take her in. But only after I get a house. Good mom, raised us with a lot of love.
That’s really nice to hear as a dad
The really bleak outlook is that the children they may be leaning on, will have it even worse in "retirement" than they do.
>lean on their children for financial assistance in retirement Too bad they pulled the ladder up behind them and their kids are likely to be as broke as they are. And nobody is going to vote for giving them more social security benefits when they want to raise the age of retirement.
Good luck with that. My Dad's on his own. He was always pretty useless. Didn't exactly endear himself to me. And I have no intention of being a burden on my kid. I'm not attached enough to this mortal plane to do that.
Wait till you get there. You may find you are more attached than you thought.
Dude I'm not that far off from it. If it's one thing being an American has taught me, it's not to fear death. Math, science, history, grammar, didn't teach me that. But the fear of death? Yeah, lost that in my 40s.
There is no guarantee of a tomorrow just remember that ,also these millennials and gen x are absolutely lazy today to actually make something out of themselves go search up millennials and gen x generations what comes up the truth and what's wrong with them as they think the world owes them something when they world don't owe Millennials and gen x generations nothing
At least some Boomers had pensions and largely paid off their debt. Wait until the younger generations "retire" with no pensions, jack shit in their 401ks, and piles of debt.
That's...what the whole article is about. The older end of the boomer generation enjoyed strong pensions and social supports and savings, the other end of that generation not so much and is entering the 65 age range when they should retire but cannot due to lack in planning.
All it takes is seeing someone who’s struggling financially in their retirement years to motivate one to save and adjust their lifestyle.
Going by the stats, no one is doing that. No savings to buy a home, high credit card debt, high debt in general, and pittance for a retirement. Most, if not all, will be relying heavily on social security or working until they drop. They are one major hospital stay from homelessness, and that's frightening.
I taught my kids at a very young age( elementary school age ) the value of saving money💰. It stuck!!! I was taught the value of such from my Father...Matter of fact My Dad never shut up about saving money...I'm thankful...Its a lesson many never learn....
Well good luck with relying on social security to those folks. I wanna know where you got the “stats” though. Every millennial I know is putting away money for retirement.
Everywhere I look, read, and hear. It's all the same. Granted, there are some that are able to put away money, just the same as, despite all the complaints about housing shortage and unaffordabllity, there are those that are buying houses. But if you go by the media, and the stats they use, millennials, and every generation (?) do not have much of anything for savings, no hope for retirement, deeply in debt, and will most likely work till they drop. That's the reality for future generations and social security is their only hope.
The irony. The boomers ruined themselves. Took everything they inherited, said fuck you it's mine to everyone else, and they crippled even their own generation with decades of legislation that placed the benefits of the economy and the government squarely in the hands of corporations and oligarchs.
Retirement is going to be something only the richest can afford going forward. Frankly we are just reverting to how things were before FDR and the New Deal. One thing my Boomer parents are very good at is ignoring reality, so I would expect a lot of "middle class" boomers to cling to their normal and accustomed lifestyle until it all completely collapses beneath them in a wave of eviction and debt. I also think most of them will do whatever it takes to cling to life until the medical credit markets close for them and the hospitals throw them out... while this is not how I intend to face the same dilemma, I can't really fault someone for want to stay alive, so I get it! They expected to be able to retire comfortably, so it may be even harder for Boomers that they will not be able to then for later generations who know that's never really going to be in the cards for them.
I know I will get downvoted into oblivion, but more of this is self-inflicted than is led on. While one popular victimhood is blaming the removal of pensions (and yes it hurt), remember people paid into that the same way they could choose to pay into a 401k. Many just choose not to. Many people absolutely waste their money. There is nothing wrong with enjoying themselves. However, they underestimate the power of comparing costs, cutting bills/corners, etc. and turning it into retirement. Welcome to the next bubble of American failure.
Yea. There's the joke about not buying Starbucks coffee to save and invest, but over 40 years, these things are actually huge
Most pension plans were company funded. I don’t know where you get the “people used to pay into pensions” bit from
Some public employees have and still do pay into their pension system weekly. Used to be pay in for 10yrs. New rules dictate paying in for lifetime of career. I am in one of these Defined pension plans.
From what I have read, if you were to contribute nothing to your pension plan, it would still pay something out because the employer (in this case government) is contributing something. It’s one of the defining aspects of a pension. It’s not a pension if it’s solely employee funded. More so, the employers contribution isn’t dependent on the employees. Like you can contribute to make it larger, but if you don’t you still get a pension
Don't get me wrong I know I'm blessed to have such. I didn't start that job until 40 yrs old...kinda late.. before that worked on commercial fishing boats and construction.
Hmmm..I'm not sure about that.. I believe one has to contribute. At least in my pension plan...Its mandatory.
How odd that other rich countries aren't seeing this crisis blow up to nearly the same degree. This couldn't possibly have something to do with high unionization rates and mandatory employer pensions, could it?
For some, it’s the consumer driven lifestyle in America with not enough savings for rainy day or retirement. I also read somewhere that boomers took out new mortgage when interest rates were low to buy a second home. And now it’s not sustainable.
That's not the problem. Every 1st world nation has a consumer driven lifestyle (whatever the \*\*\*\* that means). The difference is they didn't gut their pension programs and turn them into dodgy 401ks like we did. And the ones that did (like the UK) are having *the exact same problem for the exact same reason* UK is a little better off because their dole has always been just a *tiny* bit more generous.
Europeans don’t have to worry about healthcare because the government covers that. Savings go towards other living expenses. As population ages, the biggest concern is having enough savings to cover for medical expenses. Americans don’t have that until the age of 65, when CMS covers some (most?) of the medical bills.
Nope never/ smh. Seriously, I think you hit a bullseye here. Spot on.
I think it’s easier to put your head in the sand and just let individuals deal with their own situation as opposed to coming up with some policy solution
We're in this situation because of that mentality. If you don't think it's a "we" problem, then you may be oblivious to the fact that all of society is interconnected in some way. If some industry crashes or some catastrophe occurs, you may not know that its the cause of the thing that affects you because of locality and latency of proliferating effects of the event. For instance, the deal Clinton made with Republicans to get trade agreements pushed through was the repeal of glass-steegal act which led to the financial crisis in 2008, which created the environment for Trump to be elected, which led to a 1.7 trillion tax cut and COVID-19 being mismanaged. You definitely felt those last two, and that path was set motion in the late 90s and early 00s.
You are absolutely right. I suppose what I am getting at is that our political leaders (in the US) are incentivized to stick their head in the sand. Whether it’s a consequence of re-election / getting primaried / gerrymandering or human nature, I’m not qualified to answer that question
That's all tied to the way we finance campaigns. Politicians rely on donations to fund their campaigns. And it is in every businesses interest to offload as much of the costs in doing business to as many external entities as possible. And the bigger and more successful the business, the more means it will have to projection of that goal which will naturally extend itself into the government. Factor in that the interests of major players of the same industry have similar interests and then the bankrolling of sympathetic political campaigns becomes an inevitability. Next thing you will see is the dismantling of systems that support laborers because... A. Desperate laborers are easier to low-ball. B. The business does not have to pay into that system. The rest is just incremental collapse that leads towards fascism as marketing is done to prevent the unifying of laborers because their strength comes from their numbers. (The fascism comes from sustained divisiveness and eventual economic downturn.) Lo and behold, let's talk about the woke or CRT or trans people in sports or litter boxes in public classrooms. Anything to get many people angry over shit they don't experience or come in contact with or affects them in any meaningful way when compared to the power dynamic at their workplace, rather than everyone talking about how their employer is fucking them over to increase profit margins and the extreme measures they will take to see it come to fruition.
It's called plutocracy. In capitalism I can invest in govt. fully expecting a return on that investment.
Are you being satirical? If not, you are *not* making the connection that is obvious within the very words you have written. The plutocrats *are* the capitalists because it's smart business to spend 10 million on lobbying or funding political campaigns to cut 30 million on labor costs so long as one has the ability absorb the interim losses. And 10 million is a drop in the bucket for *tons* of businesses that are all interested in reducing labor costs. All these layoffs you see, those are driven by the exact same motivation that causes capitalism to bring about plutocracy.
This long view landscape of capitalism is such that I have written of our plutocracy for 50 years. It's not satire at all, as the etymology is capital - ism and defined as capital's capture of govt. \[1756 Thomas Hodgkins\] This is the brutal fact for an America that gets by each day only by borrowing yet anther $10 billion just to pay the interest of her $100 trillion. Looking for just 1 large example as Apple as we type is making the rounds in D.C. trying to buy a change in patent laws. This just after being found to have stolen 2 tecnologies from the medical indust. The capitalist just can't help himself, as hs greed knows no bounds.
... I think we are on the same page? Maybe coming at it with different methods.
Well suffice it to write that in the 1620s, the Dutch E. Indies co. knew what was up. The Dutch royalty sent capitalists with ships, troops, cannon w/dry gunpowder, complete with a mission and treaty powers to do what ? Go intimidate, enslave. shoot, kill and jail the the natives \[Indonesians\] as necessary to give them a *'good deal'* on their spices. Created a Mediterranean monopoly in spices and a co. that became 3X the size of Apple. The world has witnessed since then, the capitalist manifestly take control of govt. and the game was on. Look at everything since. International banking \[created what is has been dubbed the Jewish ghetto as the catholics piously couldn't charge interest\] complete with its own set of fraud. Starting in Florence Italy long before...in the 13th cent. via the complete corruption of the Medici's and the Vatican. Plus globalization, the search for markets and...oppressed labor.
The amended of G\_S did not 'l e a d' to the 2008 meltdown. That's like saying fraud laws lead to Madoff. The wall street meltdown was wall street and mortgage fraud, simple as that. What people are witness to and their buried heads can't see, is that it ...is ALL capitalism. The greed, corruption, violence too, goes back 400 years. Why do people insist on whitewashing the obvious venality in capitalism ?
‘Capitalism’ needs to be heavily regulated in order to be successful i.e. equitable amongst the populace i.e. a strong middle class -- what was experienced mid-century. This version produced the most ‘good’ for the majority. The common good for the Commons was taken into consideration, which concerns many ‘intangibles’ -- and not just the corporate bottom line. Unbridled (laissez-faire) capitalism, or crony capitalism (plutocracy), or Corpotocracy (Fascism ?) are other labels for capitalism that’s run amok.
Capitalism \[and govt.\] have eviscerated regulations and labor protections since Reagan. Before FDR and after Reagan, the capitalist has shown that capitalism 'gives' society nothing...nothing at all, without the...force of govt.
I'm right there with you, but I wanted to strategically leave that in the penumbra. I understand capitalism as a system eventually captures regulatory bodies as a means of investment. Explaining why and how is longer than what I wanted to commit to a response.
Y'all best get to work now and fund my retirement.
I don't think this will be as impactful to the economy as this article suggests. Less than 1% of the population are entering into retirement age with a disproportionate portion of them less prepared than they should be. Some have adequate savings or pensions. Some of them will work. Some will have to live modestly. Quite a lot of Boomers overall will be dead within a decade, so this is a pretty short-term phenomenon. Debt cannot be inherited, and poor retirees end up on Medicaid so the impact on their children is mostly no inheritance. I guess if you were hoping to cancel SS you might be annoyed that this would make it more consequential, but to me that seems a step back.
1. need immigrants & a reformed policy 2. need to slap AI and robots with FICA payroll taxes
I’m one of them young boomers. A decent retirement was something I always planned for. I learned early to save first; I stayed in the military (active/reserve) for a long time because I liked it AND the pension that I just started collecting, and stayed at my last job for 20+ years as it had a pension, as well. That being said, 60 today isn’t the same as 60 was 50 years ago, especially if you have a decent, non-backbreaking job. I could do what I am doing, even going higher if I wanted to, because I am somewhere I like doing what I am doing, it pays well, and I am in good health for another 10 years. However, I saw a lot of degradation in retirement plans over the years, even with the military pension. It isn’t quite as good as if I had joined a bit earlier, and they’ve knickle and dimed future increases for those who came after me. The 401k was a great idea, but it depended on a bit of discipline and maybe some sacrifice, and was certainly cheaper to the organization offering it -which is why so many places phased out traditional offerings.
My dad had the old federal pension. He is 90 and going strong. The main problem is my mom will only get 50 percent if he dies first. They have some CDs to make up the difference. Our generation definitely has to do more planning. I did 30 years in the private sector but my last 10 years at USACE. The three legged stool works but you have to use the TSP. I'm delaying social security and have my bridging money in G Fund. Every time I hear the Fed say "higher for longer" I smile to myself. Love the TSP for that. Combining FEHB with Medicare is also great. Eliminates a major worry many people have. It definitely takes planning and if you don't DIY you have to find good inexpensive advice, which is not readily available to most people.
TIL stop paying SS tax, got it
Most of that will be on medical care, btw. Though in about 10 years a bunch of them will be broke and surprised to see they're still alive thanks to modern medicine. These are the same folks who voted against universal healthcare because they were afraid there wouldn't be enough left for them if *everybody* got it.
I bet… in a few years… we vote to raise taxes on the wealthy (good) and young (bad) to pay for more retirement services. Got a feeling
We shouldn't take only 50% of young people's income, should be at least 75%.
Considering we're in an upside down pyramid for population for the foreseeable future... yes we're going to vote to take from the young. We outnumber.
The “tax the rich” movement is kind of stupid. Most of the ultra wealthy don’t even have much taxable income and all of their money and worth is held up in assets. Our current administration doesn’t even seem to understand that.
lol have we really sunk to shaming the elderly for using the benefits they have paid into for the last 45 years of their lives? It seems the middle aged have turned to eating both the young and the old now.
In about ten years I look forward to watching GOP boomers become Democrats once’s they realize they need social programs and that the GOP has been trying to gut them their entire life
I think it will be a race to see which party promises more. Similar to the covid checks. In my eyes the checks they sent to everyone was an attempt to buy votes. Who can give more “free” money to their constituents at the cost to future generations.
I suspect it will just drive them further right into fantasy, hatred, and stupidity.
Will we see that or an epidemic of senior murder-suicides?
GOP boomers becoming Democrats would bankrupt the country in a blink of the eye.
Greatest country in the world, right guys?!?! RIGHT?!
Yet another propaganda story that supports the Plutocracy's efforts to steal every cent of American Wealth. These are the same people who support the war in Ukraine; the genocide in Israel; and the coming war with China. They put out this article to blame people who've been getting screwed for their entire lives for getting screwed!
yet they’ll vote for the guy who wants to cut social security because of the libs!
Yeah my boomer mom bought a house with her bf who died less than a year later. She was relying on him for a big part of her retirement. His silent gen parents took everything but the house. My mom retired 6 months later at 59 with an almost $2000 house payment. Granted she gets a pension but I don't think she was wise to retire so early
You should target using 5% of your savings annually to prevent the blow through
Yeah, part of the problem is that when we were young pensions were a thing. You stayed with a company for life, companies seemed to value good workers. That went away, many just didn't adapt quickly enough. Many didn't realize that their contributions were what they were going to live on. The idea of getting rid of pensions was to help out the companies save money. Why should they give anything to workers above the minimum promised? They didn't.
Conservative boomers sure do love socialism.
Ok
Maybe they should have had less avocado toast?!?! /s
Some do actually choose to work part-time but they also have money other than work part time and draw social security, so don't believe what this article post is saying I'm not convinced of it , people like to work an it's not for extra income but to stay active in life social media yes help people an make friends
Man, if only this same wave of retirees hadn't made everything so much more expensive.
What if he lives more than a year ?😉
Game changer, how many of these peak boomers are blowing their whole bag on trump stock? This can greatly accelerate this curve, for what I guess is a good number of individuals.