I was entirely opposed to the banking and auto bailouts. Unlike Clinton and Obama who voted for them.
Few people get pensions now, they get 401ks, which often have no gurantees of pay outs. So yes, many boomers have to continue working because their 401ks (if they havenāt tanked into oblivion, which has happened - Enron, being one prominent example) and social security arenāt paying their way and some of that is related to longer life spans. However, there are studies suggesting that the people living the longest can afford to do so anyway. The people working the longest are working class and had no secure retirement in the first place, Iād wager.
And while the next generation (Gen X) wasnāt very large, the current generation entering the work force, the millennials, are very large (bigger than the boomers, I believe). There are less jobs with security now, and more of my generation and the millennial generation are working āgigā type jobs (in my field itās adjuncting, which has per course pay and no benefits) which has become so trendy in the economy right now. Iād think that many Gen xers are doing okay and secure, but many millennials have no real job or pension security to speak of and this was a choice made by employers, in order to boost short term profits and cut costs on labor.
Itās a big mess, in others words, that canāt just be explained away by changes to life spans, even if thatās one factor involved. People are making choices about employment and pensions, and those choices have consequences for the rest of us, which given the very low level of union membership, most of us have no way to rectify or have a say in anymore.
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And from what Iāve seen, I believe weāve circled around back to that. A consequence of cutting communal ties other than family (and in some cases, those have been cut too).
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Not all of them, actually. Many of them got screwed just as they crossed the finish line.
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To be fair sometime cutting the family ties is a good thing. I havenāt cut ties with my immediate family as much as Seattle was where the jobs were vs St. Louis and now I really like it here. My extended family with a some exceptions have not only gone over to the fringe right but are all probably tRump supporters so I donāt miss them at all.
Stupid 401Ks though pension funds were pretty much the same thing only you invested as a group rather than individual. Not sure which route is better provided conservative investment vs, speculative high risk investment done in the fund.
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Oh, I totally agree there - sometimes itās necessary to cut ties with oneās birth family and I donāt begrudge anyone who does so. Once you cut times (even if for an excellent reason, like abuse, etc), you are without a support network, because thatās the only one that really exists in our society any more. Those who canāt find alternatives are often screwed, unless independently wealthy.
I think we only need look at enron to see what happens to 401ks, which are based on riskier investments and are (as you point out) more individualized. There needs to be guarantees for people who put a portion of their paychecks into whatever system exists or else when the market nose dives (which itās pretty much going to do now, since weāre kind of in unfettered capitalism territory). Iād say itās better to be conservative with the money that people are expecting to live on into their old age.
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To be fair the ones that got screwed were dumping like 40% into the company stock fund, which is nice when things are going UP UP UP but as they say timing is everything. Boeing wouldnāt let us put more than 10% in pure Boeing stock and had a good choice managed or index of specific company sectors stated higher risk and simple index funds to put money elsewhere. CSC was pretty much the same as well.
Reversion to the mean is something to aspire to?
I donāt discuss aspirations, only reality.
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