“I am curious to know what fate you intend for those who work their entire lives making just enough to put food on the family table without being able to save for retirement.”

Well, there’s the motivation to work harder, isn’t it? “If I want to retire, I need to bust my butt and make more money.”

If Joe Schmoe doesn’t work hard enough to afford retirement, that’s not my fault, nor yours, nor anyone else’s fault but Joe Schmoe’s. Why should we all be penalized because — as you pointed out — a death benefit has turned into a retirement plan?

As for the “involuntary gold watch”… how many recipients of that gold watch have failed to keep current on knowledge and skills that businesses need to compete in the workplace? How many 50-year-olds know about viral marketing, for instance? How many 60-year-olds still can’t figure out email? Not to be crass, but just because they’re old doesn’t give them an excuse to stop learning the skills businesses need to remain competitive.

When Social Security was initiated, it kicked in just before the average lifespan was due to end. It was never intended to finance a 20-30 year golf vacation. If you want to save Social Security for the original purpose for which it was intended, we need to strengthen laws protecting older workers from discrimination. Too many are getting an involuntary gold watch so some Gen-Xer who has the boss’s ear can move up the ladder.

Keep up the good work.
ed

At birth, open up a retirement account for your kid. Put $2,000 in it every year until they’re 18. That’s $36,000 on your part. (And most people can afford it with their tax return.)

Everyone knows that compounding interest translates into big money in the long term. So you take $36,000, compound 6% interest from inception to age 66, and you have $1,013,326.61. Your kids then put that in an annuity which pays out 6.74% per month, and they’ll have a monthly income of about $8,833 before taxes, or about $82,000 a year. Even if the annuity only makes a paltry 2% per year and the remaining 4.74% comes from your principle, if they die at 85 they still leave $402,763 to their kids (your grandkids.) Or better yet, structure the annuity to pay $41,000 per year, and there’s more than enough left over to cover medical expenses and *still* bequeath a tidy amount to your grandkids.

Hell, if the government did this, they’d save a couple hundred thousand dollars per person over paying out Social inSecurity.

The bottom line is still that the government is not the answer, despite what the government has done in the past and continues to do today (i.e. Social Security, welfare, etc.). Government created the teat for people to suck on and now that they’ve created it, they’ll never remove it for fear of being ousted from office by losing votes and other support (read: financial). Hence, we’re on the path to destruction as a country. This is why I agree with you that we should have really strict rules on campaign contributions – cut off half the bullshit reasons politicians have for making the piss-poor decisions that aren’t in the best interests of the people.