I'm feeling lucky
Amidst all the talk about "fixing" Social Security, I can see that the folks who are now in their old age will be well protected by the greying, but still mean, pit bulls at the AARP. And the youngsters in their 20s will have plenty of time, between now and their retirement, to undo whatever mistakes they're talked into by Karl Rove.
But there will be a group who gets the royal shaft -- workers too young to be grandfathered into the old system they've been paying into for decades, and too old to undo the short- to medium-term damage that will surely be caused by the dismantling of the New Deal.
And guess who that will be.
My prediction: People born in 1954.
Like me.
| Posted at 11:18 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (7)
You may get lucky. The rhetoric I was hearing earlier kept the system intact for those 50 and older.
Posted by hilsy | February 23, 2005 11:39 AM
Geez Jack, just when I was starting to forget that I'd turned fifty....
Posted by Dave Lister | February 23, 2005 11:46 AM
Let's keep score... Screwed by he AMT (join the club), Social Security slipping away, voice just about gone like Johnny Fontaine in the Godfather... I hope you're not having a Gonzo moment, entitled "Fear and Loathing in Portland".
Get yourself some tall-neck Budweisers and listen to Inna Godda Da Vida. Pop in that copy of "Easy Money" that I sent you for Chrismas and chill out.
Posted by brother gary | February 23, 2005 11:59 AM
Crap, I'd better go call my dad immediately - '54 for him too. I don't want him mooching off of me when he's old! :)
(hilsy, I've heard the Bushies saying 55 and older.)
Posted by raging red | February 23, 2005 2:44 PM
This is why we have to stop discouraging smoking.
Remember when people used to die at a reasonable age?
Posted by Edubya | February 23, 2005 4:08 PM
Nah.
See, I'm only (in my 30s). I've had a lifetime of falling standards of living for the majority of Americans, and only more of the same to look forward to.
It's my society that is being sacrificed for the Party of God/Infallability.
Posted by Josh Narins | February 23, 2005 7:19 PM
All politics aside, there is no political system that can overcome certain features of capitalism. Like cyclical ups and downs, particularly easy-money induced speculative bubbles.
Just think, Jack, retirement accounts are nothing more than an advance agreement NOT to make a run a bank, even upon discovery that the bank is empty of chairs and staff and the doors are locked tight.
Bush just goes one step further toward locking that door shut. Make your deposit and call me in forty years.
The bank is empty already. Should the 20-somethings fill it? For whom?
The entire public and private retirement system that is dependent upon delegating investment decisions to others is a problem. Everybody should pull out their retirement accounts, even if at a discount, and pay off their mortgages and start over, today, not when everybody simultaneously figures it out.
The current Albania style economic planning will leave you fighting for food. Also, keep your eye out for bankruptcy reform today to see whether poor folks can get a fresh start or whether they become slaves to private lenders with the full support of the federal government. Will the good folks at AARP support Bush in ending Bankruptcy for all but Bushes buddies who run from one scam (S&L) to another leaving a trail of misery?
If Bush cannot sucker in the 20 somethings into the grand pyramid scheme then this round of illusionary retirement security experimentation will be history sooner rather than later.
Don't rely on the foolish wonks stuck in some mental cave that think they can predict and manage resource allocation in five-year plans. That method of economic design has already been tried and proved a failure.
Visualize yourself competing for a job at McDonalds or WalMart with a 20 something.
Posted by Ron Ledbury | February 25, 2005 6:43 AM