Greenspan Cautions on Baby Boomer Benefits

[LynnsABCs]

[Burnin' oil]

I will voluntarily continue to pay into Social Security for the next ten years and waive all benefits if the system is phased out over the next twenty years. Let those who have been counting on the benefits receive them and give everyone else enough notice to make alternative arrangements. The system is going to collapse anyway, might as well make it an organized collapse. . .

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Unless we completely revamp our entire system, if you want to live longer (better health care, better coverage of health costs) expect to have to work longer.

[JavaBrewer]

I have zero expectation of government help when I retire. I'm with Mr. Oil there and think preparations should start now to retire or replace the system entirely. I plan on working till the day I die - not a 40 hr. job, but something...

[tabs]

I think that maybe we should consider resettling older Americans in a portion of the USA where everything can be geared to serving the needs of the elderly...we could call this place Retirment Land. It would be a nice train ride and once there everybody showers up and lives happily ever after....

[Burnin' oil]

I like your idea Tabby Cat. Hmmm, I wonder at what age we should start? Say, by the way, how old are you? . . .

[928ram]

I think that maybe we should consider resettling older Americans in a portion of the USA where everything can be geared to serving the needs of the elderly...we could call this place Retirment Land. It would be a nice train ride and once there everybody showers up and lives happily ever after....

Isn't that Florida??

[island911]

But wait! John Kerry says Greenspan WRONG!

SEATTLE (AP) - John Kerry doesn't talk much about Social Security on the campaign trail, but he laid out some thoughts for a voter in Everett, Wash., who doubted that the government retirement program is really in trouble.

"We've made little fixes, little jots and jags here and there, . ..

the guy is delusional.

[turbo6bar]

You'd have to be smoking a little weed to think there are no looming problems with SS, Medicare, and Medicaid. Eliminate SS by 2025. Everyone pays, but no retirement funds disbursed after 2025. Make IRA contributions 100% tax deductible with no upper limit. Remove any cap on Roth IRA (if one does exist). It's pretty simple. Just take 15.1% of your income and invest in your favorite media. If you like pyramid schemes, go for it. If you prefer 3 month CDs, go for it.

[tabs]

America has to last to 2025.

[cstreit]

Easy way to fix it. Put congress on SS instead of their fat pensions

[CamB]

Bush favors giving younger workers the option of putting part of their payroll tax into personal retirement accounts, in return for smaller Social Security benefits, or staying with the Social Security system.

Kerry opposes that plan for partial privatization. He says the way to strengthen Social Security is to "grow the economy, create jobs and increase revenues into the program."

Great alternatives .

Kerry is dreaming, and I'm not sure how what Bush wants to do will help the baby boomer problem. It might in the future (but I doubt it).

The country should "save" for "retirement" - if there is a wave coming, then they need to think about how to fund it.

At 29, I am basically resigned to the fact that I will be paying for the baby boomers retirement (through tax, because raising it ahead of time is politically impossible), and that my children will probably end up being the next generation to do well because of it. In NZ, like in the US, there isn't enough "extra" put aside to account for them all.

[tabs]

The USA is headed straight for being a 4th world country....bhoyz and girls the wealth we had was too much of a temptation and we squandered it....welcome to reality...Welcome to the real world and not the world of TV and endless shopping.

[techweenie]

I don't trust anything Bush says (a near-trillion dollar deficit after a promise of 'balanced budgets?' and 'paying down the debt!').

But J. Kerry's answer isn't much better.

It was Bob Kerry who looked into the SS mess years ago and predicted system collapse by 2014.

The SS surplus was being raided as early as 1975 -- by both parties.

What I wouldn't give to get back the $80,000+ I've paid into Social Security to date...

[tabs]

Techie...FORGET POLITICAL PARTIES.....ITS YOUR GOVENMENT THATS DOING IT.....the great churning machine that is known as the USA government has a voracious need for money to keep the gears turning... There is really very little distinction between parties...just face A and face B ......both parties accept money from the same sources...Unions, corporations, interest groups etc...so how does a contributer lose if he supports both sides.... The people of the USA are manipulated by the media/advertising etc into thinking this or that...but the outcome whether you have face A or B in office is going to relativily the same...

Do you think Gore wouldn't have invaded Afganistan? Gore wouldn't have done Irwreck...but he would have had to tackle Korea or Iran and who knows what the results would have been..Gore would had allready declared a victory in the war on Terrorism...and tried to go back to the same old same old of the Clinton era... U see all face A or B can do is steer the ship a little to the left or a little to the right...but the Ship/system really determines what happens. Sure the face gets to sit in the commanders chair but next week their will be a new face sitting there but the ship of state/system will still be there grinding on unchanged.

[red ufo]

Somebody has to pay for the war.

[kach22i]

This is why Bush is building us an empire, don't you get it.................the world will be paying us not to invade them. Just like the Roman's, problem solved!