Half of old Americans have no money saved

Would do nothing to make it solvent.

 

our debt grew more in 4 years under Trump the any other President, that is what we can not afford

 

You aint seen nothing yet!

 

sadly I agree, raising the tax back up is a lot harder than it was for the republicans to lower it

now the only thing that saves us is inflation, big time inflation

 

Wait, how can inflation 'save us'? Is inflation a good thing?

 

Trump's tax cuts for individuals were only temporary and expire in 2025.

Trump's corporate tax cuts were made permanent.

https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/20/pf/taxes/tax-cuts-temporary/index.html


As for inflation... a little is good... but not the return of 1970s double-digit inflation.

.

 

I am very fortunate in that my job (private sector - union represented) has provided for me a pension plan in addition to a 401.k (company matching plan) and the retirement package includes an indemnity medical plan which basically pay's 100% of whatever Social Security doesn't cover after the 80%. We enjoy this excellent retirement package due to the union bargaining with the company as opposed to working non-union and accepting whatever the company provides for, if anything once you retire. Long term planning is very important when it comes to your financial well being since when you retire you want to make sure you're financially secure. I made the right choices when I started working years ago and will not have to worry about in my older years.

 

debt grew under Obama in 8 years than any other President.

What most do not realize is that the explosion of debt is mainly from mandatory spending which is the majority of the Federal spending. That does not include defense spending or administrative spending. Mandatory spending are all the, for a lack of a better word, welfare payments. It will get much worse under Biden if nothing is done and much worse if they get all their wishful programs.

 

Trump raised the debt more in 4 years then Obama did in either of his 4 years

 

That wasn't Trump's fault. Democrats were in control of the rest of the government giving them lots of influence over drafting the budget. The President can't just veto the budget because that would have brought the country to a screeching halt.
(additional information see thread here: It's Democrats who are the ones holding federal workers hostage )
Then on top of that Trump was under a huge amount of pressure to match the Democrat's spending proposals because there was an upcoming election. The possible swing voters who determine the outcome of the election wanted the government to spend more, so he had to propose spending to have any chance of winning to defeat the Democrat candidate. It's the fault of the American people. They're the ones who were implicitly demanding the government spend money. Trump wouldn't have been under any pressure to spend if that wasn't the case.

In a way, it wasn't really "Trump" who spent that money. It was the Democrats and the American voters.

 

Thanks Tejas.
We have visited the Grand Canyon, a spectacular place, and yes we love wild places though my wife would not enjoy camping wild. My son and I go walking and wild camping in the UK each year, though wild areas in the UK have shrunk dramatically since we started 23 years ago.
Our plan for last year was New York- Niagara- Then Washington state mount Ranier and drive up to Banff.

 

Pensions are based on savings aren't they?

 

No, but 401k and IRAs are. Pensions are paid by the employer as continued income past retirement. Employers may have invested money to pay your pension but it's not a part of any account the employee has access to.

 

Public sector aside employer pensions are still voluntary and involve you saving a part of your income each month?

 

In my job the union negotiated pension plan you can sign up after a years employment; after that they put money into a pension fund, which you have no access to until you reach 60 years of age; at which point you can start your retirement at a reduced pension or work to 65 and retire with a higher benefit package. Plus they have a 401.k plan which they match up to 10% monies that the employee puts in. If you start young enough and stay with the company up to retirement age, you should be in fine shape when you do retire.

 

That sounds about normal, I have not heard of a pension where you can take money back out. Good of the union to negotiate an amount extra to your salary.

 

Notice how there is a tension between "not enough jobs for the young" and "Who's going to be paying to take care of all these old people?"

It is a very interesting issue.


One might think the immediate answer is to have the young take on jobs taking care of the old - that makes the most obvious sense, from one perspective - but the reality is younger people do not really want these type of jobs. Most young people don't want to have to take care of sickly old people who can't take care of themselves, and the pay in these jobs isn't very good either despite requiring a lot special additional school and training.

The answer might involve trying to balance between the two conflicting demands in our society & economy.

 

Having SS to provide a consistent income allows people to get by without having savings.

I'd be more worried about 'younger' Americans with no savings and no SS safety net.

Most older Americans have learned how to live within their means.

This is not a great success story but for most it's manageable...

 

'Shrinking" job market? We have almost 10 million job openings. Not all are high-tech, wiz-bang positions; some may be suitable for older individuals.

 

kinda, people at hostess found out that if the company goes bk, those pensions and go poof

 

Same with Delphi. When our company offered to transfer the pension to a 401K I jumped on it.

 

yep, it's a new word, Trump's me me me world

I have not just noticed this with Trump, but there are many many more narcissists in the country today than when I was younger, not sure if social media is causing that or what - maybe our new high carb heavily processed diets too, not sure

 

These older Americans already own their home. Most of these older Americans would become destitute in short order if their home were taken away.
For the younger generation, they are not so lucky. The real estate prices have shot up in the places where all the job opportunities are.

 

agree, min wage went up a lot during are grandparents generations, it has not kept up with inflation in our generation

I think this is a big part of the debt too, many on welfare today work full time jobs

 

Yeah, but raising minimum wage isn't really going to be the solution to this problem. Any other ideas?