If we're not careful, this is the type of things I'm seeing that is likely to happen in the near future or the foreseeable future...
Bear with me on this post - it's going to be lengthy. There's a lot to say.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/ready-until-80-172821954.html[from the clip]
A seemingly off-hand remark made by Robert Benmosche the CEO of AIG (AIG) has become a bit of a viral online debate, as people of all ages and walks of life weigh in on the idea of bumping up the retirement age to 80. While Benmosche's comments to Bloomberg suggest the age increase is needed to maintain the level of benefits we have been promised and are accustomed to, not everyone is on board with the idea.
"There's a difference between austerity and just moving out the retirement age," says Lee Munson, Chief Investment Officer at Portfolio, LLC and the author of the book Rigged Money: Beating Wall Street At Its Own Game. "Most people aren't functional at that age."
As it is, the retirement age is already creeping higher and is up to 67 now for anyone born after 1960. In fact, one of the reasons people like Munson (and me) "don't think it's going to work" is as much about mortality rates as it is about expectations.
"The mortality curve is starting to flatten out," Munson says. "I wouldn't expect 20 years from now we are all going to live to be 100 or 110." He adds that the last thing the U.S. needs now is to "end up like the Middle East, where we have a bunch of young, unemployed people getting pissed."
(which is what I'm waiting on - the last paragraph)
[and then this]
"We have to realize that we need to lower our expectations, because, simply stated, the baby boomers didn't save enough, and we're running too big of a deficit," he says. He argues that it is "disingenuous and dishonest" to suggest that we can maintain our current quality of life and level of spending into the distant future.
What's wrong with this statement? It's that they blame the baby boomers for 'not saving enough for retirement.' It was, in fact, only due to a failing system. Let's use some analytical thinking:
In the past, we had pensions. That failed due to bad investments in stocks - the corporations lost most of the funds and then we arrived at 401K.
401K was doomed to fail from the start. Why? Because it automatically creates winners and losers - it's trading stocks only - on the stock market - which is an organized form of gambling. And in gambling, usually the house wins unless you really, really know how to play. The house in this case is the rich, and investment organizations - financial institutions. 25% of baby boomers can retire today. Only a fourth. What if I told you I could organize a system in which everyone could retire, unless they worked low wage jobs all their life, in which we could shift the social security system to the poor and disabled? That's the reality of the kinds of things I'm seeing. And it seems nobody else is really seeing this.
The other things I'm seeing is what will happen should we fail to apply an appropriate solution. Let me elaborate, if you will.
Clinton was the first of the later stages of the game to realize you can't have a growing economy with a huge budget deficit and growing debt. He did something about it and it worked. We have a lot to learn what went right with his administration, and a lot to learn what went wrong during Bush's. What would bush do is a good question to ask right now - to know what not to do. Then ask yourselves - what would republicans do. I don't care what your political affiliation is - with the republicans, our answers to healthcare, retirement, and a social safety net will be to effigy the poor, disabled, and the middle class in favor of supporting those on top. They think they're policies on job creation will work, when in fact it has been an utter disaster. I can point to the dropping of taxation on corporations and individuals that went right into the pockets of the rich instead of creating actual jobs, I can point to the massive practice of offshoring and outsourcing from the bush admin, which was supposed to make things cheaper, be an utter disaster of massive amounts of money - a limited resource - being sent overseas permanently. I've seen the ramp-up of hiring h1-b's and illegal immigrants instead of supporting the current citizen population. I could go on and on. Things went wrong. We applied the wrong answers. That simple.
However, if we aren't even identifying the problems, and are therefore failing to address the real problems, I would rather have solutions that favor the majority of the population instead of the well-off. The reason is simple: supply creates demand. Without companies giving jobs and good wages to its employees, there is no demand for other companies, as well as potentially their own company. This is the actual cycle of supply and demand - and it only works this way in a closed system. Once you introduce trade and operations with other countries - introducing other variables into the equation - it changes, no longer holds true.
To see the type of stuff I'm talking about, visit
realeconomics101.wordpress.com. I've outlined economic reality vs. economic theory. Spread that stuff around, and you'll have a bunch that wakes up to the fact that our leaders are influenced by economic theory that doesn't hold it's weight in bullshit.
These things are things I would want people to see right away - there are in fact answers that don't include things like raising the retirement age to 80; privitizing healthcare, privitizing social security, and dropping medicare. We can have solutions that guarantee retirement, a good education if you really want it, a change in careers if you like, a healthcare system that anyone can afford (why are all doctors millionaires today, when that used to not be the case - just ask an elderly person), changes in energy production and usage that isn't heavily reliant on fossil fules, the list goes on and on. We just need to identify the problem, and solve the problem. That simple.
Better solutions are out there. They just aren't being explored because people are unaware of their options, the potential for other newer forms of systems to live and thrive, and they also aren't aware of the tidal wave of shit that we'll all have to live through if we fail to act appropriately.
If you don't want to see this kind of crap in the news put into political legislation - because my brain tells me these corporations - like the guy in the referenced article - are all the government is listening to - then I suggest you get on board with these youngsters and create actual change for yourselves. Make everything entirely visible. Use reason. Use intellect. Use your brains...
The reason we are failing today is simply because we are living at a point in time when we are catering to people that are treating their own clients, customers, and employees like 'idiots', or 'muppets'. This attitude surfaced in the 80s, and it needs to change. You guys need people who have the clout to make a lot of noise. You need people who are intelligent to be talking publicly. You really need change right now. I'm waiting on the rest of you to recognize what a mess we've all gotten ourselves in...
I started posting on this forum because I saw religion as a blocker to achieving what I want - a new system that thrives for everyone built around 21st century concepts. A society that works for everybody. It can be done. It really needs to be done right now. But it won't happen with everyone's attention diverted to issues that don't matter. It won't happen with people thinking Jesus will come back and fix it. It won't happen with people concentrating on heaven or hell, or having their heads in the clouds - fixated on things that aren't real.
Then, people just need to have the balls to actually hold people accountable.... it requires an awakening of what kind of tomorrow you really can build - regardless of your leaders. It begs the question of whether or not you are really comfortable with the type of tomorrow that your leaders are going to bring to you.
Just some thoughts. I'm still waiting...