When Congress started messing with SS back in the 80’s, it became clear that retirement wasn’t going to be an option for anyone not part of the Boomer generation. The invention of the 401(k) sealed the deal.
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Only 10% of boomers have a pension. Boomers retirement saving average $9,129 in annual income.
Everyone was screwed. The answer isn’t division - it’s solidarity and fixing the system for all.
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Cogent argument: Not enough people paying in today to support the program. Kinda like socialism. At a certain point you run out of other peoples money. Google “Venezuela”.
Provide data…
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Solidarity? How? From the end of gun barrel? Have you noticed whats happening in the US? Ain’t no solidarity anywhere. Unless we’re choosing sides. Then it gets real solid real quick.
also - 401k’s are socialism as well. they provide a tax break that must come from somewhere.
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We agree on something! Get rid of the tax break and all corporate welfare. Absolutely.
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Oh crap, you’re secretly one of them, aren’t you?
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There are actually programs that a vast majority of Americans support. they’re called social security and medicaire. this is what’s called solidarity - should people choose to act on their beliefs.
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401k’s aren’t corporate accounts - they’re personal.
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There’s nothing wrong with the concept of investing pension funds, especially in the current environment of low interest on deposits. It’s all about execution (which should be conservative and not prone to gambling and self-dealing) and scale (which should give institutional level cloud). This in turn usually requires either a strong and competent union or a private corporation so prosperous that it can hire a top-tier pension fund manager and so responsible to its employees that it wants to hire such a person at all. Most workers in America don’t enjoy either situation.
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Cute. Where are the unicorns?
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I agree that rest from work is something that everyone should be given in old age, but I don’t understand the dislike of 401Ks as the vehicle. 401Ks are cash in hand, pensions vanish as companies go bankrupt and municipalities renege on their obligations.
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"Nearly nine in ten Americans (85%) say Social Security is more important than ever to ensure that retirees have a dependable income. These views cut across age and income lines: those agreeing include 81% of Americans in Generation X and 92% of those in the Early Boomers or prior generations, as well as 88% of people with family incomes under $30,000, 89% of those earning between $50,000 and $75,000, and 78% of those earning over $100,000."
https://www.nasi.org/learn/social-security/public-opinions-social-security
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I said to get rid of the tax break and corporate welfare as in tax breaks for corporations.
This is why the debate/discussion around Universal Basic Income needs to happen urgently. Because it’s increasingly looking like the only real way to address the crisis that’s happening at both ends of the system (in terms of age, I mean.)
Once you’ve stopped looking at the concept of “retirement” as something special, and instead start to rethink the notion of “work” itself, then there are suddenly whole vistas of opportunity that open up. Those vistas are not so great for the fat cats, of course, because the power would return to the workers (since they’d be in control of their choices) but hey, you can’t have everything.
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