Because they do not have to. And when things get tight, they will change the topic with war.
"Unfunded Pension Liabilities" was the strike issue in the 1982 longshoreman contract negotiations for which I was on the management side. I had to figure out what that was. What we see today as a crisis was clear enough 30 years ago. Then we could have done something, but we have a democracy, so we voted the problem downstream.
The Good Book says a man's sins are unto the 3rd or 4th generation, and no doubt that is true collectively as well. Since we've piled up debt unto our great grandchildren, there is probably a metaphysical wall we have hit. We cannot take on more debt because we cannot find anyone who believes they can retrieve their loan from the fifth generation.
As a practial matter today, few understand pension money can be spent by those who control it before it is paid out. In fact, they are obliged to, by way of investments. They invest in things that go wrong for bad economic policy. Detroit is bust, and a bankruptcy court will be telling those retirees depending on $2100 a month that, sorry, there is no more money. Cities who look good today are only rosy due to a false economy based on a bubble stock market. That too will pop.
It will be incremental, and a combination of things, but in time it will either be whittled down to no money, or $2100 will get you a loaf of bread. It is already happening, look at the oldsters who are on fixed incomes and seeing low interest rates nail their incomes.
What we need is a renaissance in business to grow us out of this mess. But that requires freedom, deregulating the producers. Instead we are being treated to a doubling down on security theatre today. "It's really, really scary out there.... something really really bad can happen!"
OK, it's your job to deal with it, not talk it to death. Deal with it. (Update: tired of waiting, the USA is the first to start throwing bombs.)
But it is all nonsense, make work for people who want an exciting sinecure in the theatre. Do note the military uses the very term "theatre of operations." The liberal idea of solving problems that do not exist finds its full flower in the G W O T ! By addressing problems that do not exist, it is not possible that the job will ever be finished, so your employment is never in doubt.
In the meantime, those unfortunate souls who drank the work 20 years, vacation for 40, kool aid will find life hard indeed. They are in a funny position: their grandchildren will have to go to war to steal enough for the retirees to enjoy a vacation.
There is an alternative. Deregulate banking. Medicine. Education. Even just one thing, that would do it. But no, we have the Global War On Terror! Who needs to actually produce something?
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
"Unfunded Pension Liabilities" was the strike issue in the 1982 longshoreman contract negotiations for which I was on the management side. I had to figure out what that was. What we see today as a crisis was clear enough 30 years ago. Then we could have done something, but we have a democracy, so we voted the problem downstream.
The Good Book says a man's sins are unto the 3rd or 4th generation, and no doubt that is true collectively as well. Since we've piled up debt unto our great grandchildren, there is probably a metaphysical wall we have hit. We cannot take on more debt because we cannot find anyone who believes they can retrieve their loan from the fifth generation.
As a practial matter today, few understand pension money can be spent by those who control it before it is paid out. In fact, they are obliged to, by way of investments. They invest in things that go wrong for bad economic policy. Detroit is bust, and a bankruptcy court will be telling those retirees depending on $2100 a month that, sorry, there is no more money. Cities who look good today are only rosy due to a false economy based on a bubble stock market. That too will pop.
It will be incremental, and a combination of things, but in time it will either be whittled down to no money, or $2100 will get you a loaf of bread. It is already happening, look at the oldsters who are on fixed incomes and seeing low interest rates nail their incomes.
What we need is a renaissance in business to grow us out of this mess. But that requires freedom, deregulating the producers. Instead we are being treated to a doubling down on security theatre today. "It's really, really scary out there.... something really really bad can happen!"
OK, it's your job to deal with it, not talk it to death. Deal with it. (Update: tired of waiting, the USA is the first to start throwing bombs.)
But it is all nonsense, make work for people who want an exciting sinecure in the theatre. Do note the military uses the very term "theatre of operations." The liberal idea of solving problems that do not exist finds its full flower in the G W O T ! By addressing problems that do not exist, it is not possible that the job will ever be finished, so your employment is never in doubt.
In the meantime, those unfortunate souls who drank the work 20 years, vacation for 40, kool aid will find life hard indeed. They are in a funny position: their grandchildren will have to go to war to steal enough for the retirees to enjoy a vacation.
There is an alternative. Deregulate banking. Medicine. Education. Even just one thing, that would do it. But no, we have the Global War On Terror! Who needs to actually produce something?
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
1 comments:
The modern concept of retirement as a complete cessation of work (like a 30-40 year vacation as you say) when one is still able-bodied is not realistic, rational and just plain wasteful. Depending on how long some people live, some former government employee retirees can actually get more money from the government during retirement than when they actually worked. Concepts and expectations about work need to be changed drastically.
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