Chief Executive Douche at AIG Says "Work Till Your Dead, Suckas!"

I don't think the manufacturing jobs will be here in twenty years anyway, and the technology to repair joint pain in twenty years will far outstrip what we have today.

 

Two reasons why people think Social Security won't be around -

1) Merrill Lynch tells them so. The financial services companies want you to distrust Social Security and save more with them. So they are always making up shit about Social Security being a crisis.

2) The anti-gubmit types tell them so. For no other reason except that's what anti-gubmit types do.

Put #1 and #2 together, and ummm yeah it's not hard to figure out why The Wall Street Journal LOVES to write Social Security horror Op-Eds. Which then become Fox News shows and radio talk show material, and eventually leak into the mainstream media coverage.

 

I hope you are right. There are a lot of people I know with no savings so I hope they have something to fall back on in their old age.

Good for mom. My parents were always teaching us to live below our means. Sure, it sucked not having Atari 2600 growing up but it taught me a great lesson.

 

I loved that game!

 

A fantastic game for its time.

 

Been the same story for 20-30 years. FUD.

 

Absolutely true. Nobody has guaranteed pensions anymore, or overtime, or any of that crap except unionized government workers. And the rest of the nation is beginning to wise up that a cop shouldn't make 60k for 30 years when he retires at 50.

I say means test Social Security, raise the retirement age to 68, and make it illegal for public employees to unionize. My friends call me the liberal.

 

I'm with you on all three, just as soon as Citizen's is overturned and there is a limit to how much government the corporations can buy. As Wisconsin showed, if you're the only one spending money, your opponent doesn't stand a chance.

 

Really ? It wasnt' getting us involved in Iraq over some trumped-up lie about WMD ?

I guess if he had used his incredible governing skills on SS just like he did on the Iraq situation we'd be MUCH better off now

 

Hmmm I'd say that San Jose voters weren't saying that public workers should be on the job until age 75. More like they don't want their public workers retiring to second homes and private gold club memberships.

Again, this is all moot. There are no jobs for these 10s of millions of oldies. This is all a peculiar form of fantasy.

 

I disagree entirely. There are quite a number of people on staff here at my government consulting company, in IT, that are "past due" for their retirement. Many of them had planned to retire, but can't - and so here they are, at work, sort of contributing, and making it more difficult for the next generation to advance.

In many situations the combination of the housing bubble pop and the destruction of their 401(k) has resulted in them having much less retirement money in their investments AND much less equity in their primary wealth holder. They can't sell the house at a huge profit and live off the difference.

My dad is 77, in good health, and could probably work if he wanted to. His father didn't make it to 75. I plan on being mentally and physically able to work at 70, I'm sure a lot of "office workers" are as well. Certainly an auto mechanic or day laborer isn't going to have the same luxury, but 70 in a generation or two certainly isn't going to be tottering oldsters getting lost on their way to the mailroom. A primary driver for the need for raised retirement ages is that people are living much longer than 2 or 3 years past 65, which was the original reason for the retirement age.

Oh, and there are no jobs in America for anyone old or young right now. The "job creator" class is creating plenty of jobs overseas while pocketing the wage differences.

 

Disagree with what? There aren't enough jobs. The older workers at your company are helping to keep young people unemployed.

The labor force is short highly trained technical workers and people who are willing to take on exhausting manual jobs for crap wages. Everybody else can suck eggs. My 57-year old neighbor? Nobody wants him.

Edit - Saw your final note, OK I guess you were disagreeing with somebody or something else.

 

People, especially young people, need to learn that social security is only going to prevent you from starving to death in old age, not support a lavish "retirement." Consequently everyone needs to be saving and investing for their future ASAP. I started a Roth IRA for my kid when he was 16, the first year he earned enough money to make it worth the effort. If affluent (middle class and up) boomers pass along some of their money to their heirs, rather than pissing it all away, and the heirs save/invest that money for the future, then the future is not so dire for them if social security benefits get cut and the retirement age is raised. Seriously, nobody should be looking forward to retiring and living on social security.

 

That has always been the intent of the Social Security program. I suppose that many think otherwise, but they shouldn't.

 

It's important to point out that Social Security is a great program that works as intended.

The thing is, there's a deal here. Gvt. employees get worse base pay than in the private sector, in exchange for better bennies and better security. I'll agree that gvt. pensions are somewhat too generous, especially for early retirees who can go on to live 30 or 40 more years. But the taxpayers of yesteryear benefited from the bargain. It's immoral to rewrite the deal halfway through.

Changing the bargain going forward is fair. Pay gvt. workers a comparable wage to the private sector and give them comparable bennies.

 

The pay at government jobs is paltry, the offices are bleak, and the conferences lack Chardonnay and cracked crab.

No thanks not worth it.

 

I visit a private company, I sit at a mahogany table with brass and marble and am served piping hot Columbian java, freshly pressed. Brought in by a personal assistant. I visit a government office, it's Sears furniture and lukewarm styrofoam diner coffee, fetched by the government schmo who is meeting with me.

Then I go home and complain about those damn government workers living high on the hog on my tax dollars.