Thread: Don't Worry About the Mule, Just Load the Wagon

Well pension money was also invested so it did grow substantially. Invested in secure stocks. Back when real estate always went up and profits from tha in paid interest was sort of tied into your benefits. Homw owners sort of paid into your pension in a round about way. Like anything else thrown into the market the pigs feast on it until it is all gone and becomes paper and nothing more. The 401k was one of the biggest mistakes people fell for. Clinton was another. Sorry, just referring to his repeal in 1999 of the Glass-Steagall Act. It all sounds like a good idea at the time but it turns out to be more like taking your savings to Vegas to double them.

Yeah those are enormous pools of money, so they're extremely attractive.

I think this country needs to have a frank discussion about what level of support its safety net should offer along with the associated costs, i.e. how much support it is prepared to give to somebody for just being a human being regardless of merit. Then tax that and anything more is based on what everybody earns for themselves on their own. If they don't save anything for retirement, invest their retirement savings in a pension fund that goes bust, or work for a company that goes bankrupt along with any pensions, then all they get is that minimum support.

I mean that's in a sense what safety net is supposed to be, but it seems that many people want it to give them either at least what they've put in, or a moderate living standard. If people want moderate living standard when they retire they should be prepared to give up the necessary portions of their earnings while they work. If they aren't then the safety net should be something to allow them life in poverty instead of extreme poverty.

Here is one thing I would change. If you retire and have the means to support yourself after your working days are up then you don't get that measly little SS check every month. It is for those who can't or failed along the way. I know a lot of people who are well off and still love to get that check even though they don't need it. Makes the BMW payment every month. That is wrong. The country need a change alright but like I said many times before, it is going to take a disaster to bring it on. The BBs are stacked and I am just waiting for something to jar the table.