11/01/10 Baltimore, Maryland – “Retirement Disaster Ahead,” says The Wall Street Journal.
Yep. Too many retirees. Too little money.
They’re counting on Social Security. But as we see above, government is going to have a hard time honoring its commitments.
The other thing that is happening is that some basic costs – namely food and energy – are going up, even as the consumer price index stays flat.
Why are food and energy becoming more expensive? Because the foreigners are buying food and energy. And there are a lot of them. Foreigners, that is.
And why is that bad news? Where does that leave the typical US retiree? Without increases in the CPI the US government doesn’t adjust Social Security payments to the upside. Meanwhile, the real cost of being retired – food, fuel…along with everything else – goes up.
Most likely, the strain of trying to support so many retired people will destroy the modern welfare state model. As in Argentina, old folks will find that they don’t get from the government what they were promised. They’ll have to figure out how to make do on their own.
Our advice: don’t grow old. Don’t retire. Don’t get sick. Don’t trust the feds. And don’t sell your gold.
Regards,
Bill Bonner
for The Daily Reckoning
Bill Bonner
Since founding Agora Inc. in 1979, Bill Bonner has found success and garnered camaraderie in numerous communities and industries. A man of many talents, his entrepreneurial savvy, unique writings, philanthropic undertakings, and preservationist activities have all been recognized and awarded by some of America's most respected authorities. Along with Addison Wiggin, his friend and colleague, Bill has written two New York Times best-selling books, Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt. Both works have been critically acclaimed internationally. With political journalist Lila Rajiva, he wrote his third New York Times best-selling book, Mobs, Messiahs and Markets, which offers concrete advice on how to avoid the public spectacle of modern finance. Since 1999, Bill has been a daily contributor and the driving force behind The Daily Reckoning. Dice Have No Memory: Big Bets & Bad Economics from Paris to the Pampas, the newest book from Bill Bonner, is the definitive compendium of Bill’s daily reckonings from more than a decade: 1999-2010.
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Who could possibly live on the payments of social insecurity anyhow. Only the poor who really have no other options!perhaps the billionares like gates etc should be made to give half of their wealth back to the masses who they ripped off to begin with instead of their charities of choice!
Many of these old folks are hail and hearty. They will have to get a job.
What kind of society tries to enrich itself by telling a huge portion of the able-bodied workforece they don’t have to work anymore?
Retirement is an evil social expectation.
People are healthier and happier if they keep working at least part-time and/or seasonally.
Apparently Investors Friend feels everyone’s goal in life is to be an efficient production unit on a never-ending struggle for enrichment.
Investors Friend is merely pointing out that the status quo- including the vast wasteland of entitlement mentality- is not fiscally sustainable. Ask yourself- who took care of elder and infirmed family members prior to Social Security, Medicare and nursing homes? Who fed their hungry family members? Who taught Benjamin Franklin how to read and write? Who took in their unemployed brother during the last depression when he was down on his luck?
What we have witnessed since 1913 is the systematic attack and attempted destruction of the basic social entity which has somehow managed to survive, despite progressive social programs, since the dawn of man.
It’s a nice fantasy that parents can hand off their children for someone else to raise and educate, husbands and wives can trade each other in when they reach a certain mileage, children can hand their parents over to the state when they get too old, etc etc etc…
But those who espouse the notion that government’s role is to take care of us from cradle to grave, at the expense of their neighbors, children and grandchildren, are finding out today that there are those of us who have never subscribed to the notion that you know better than we do what we should do with our money.
And when the Great Correction starts to take on a full head of steam, you might just get to know your family and your neighbors, your community, and if so inclined, your church- a little bit better.
And yes- people might actually find themselves a little bit healthier and happier.
“Ask yourself- who took care of elder and infirmed family members prior to Social Security, Medicare and nursing homes? Who fed their hungry family members?” While you are asking yourself these important questions also ask yourself how many people where alive at that time. Also ask yourself why the mantra of growth and more jobs are needed because more people are looking for jobs that are not there and never will be. If you think that with the mass of 6 and half billion or 10 billion in the future people will all be able to take care of themselves wake up and take a good look at the masses of people in China and India consuming every thing this planet can produce then ask yourself what the real correction will entail while you are still trying to feed yourself and those around you.
Yep. Life is all about work.