Retirement Income
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All over the advanced world working people put away money for their old age. The program is much the same in Europe and in America.
It may be called a 401(k) or an IRA or deferred compensation or any of many other names. But the key is that instead of spending all of the money you earn, you put away some money for your future retirement. In some cases you accept a lower income, and in return the company you work for provides some sort of a retirement plan. They may even contribute some of the company’s money to your future retirement.
Politicians everywhere encourage this sort of private savings for a dignified retirement. The idea of the government having to support all these old geezers, like with Social Security in America, really scares government economists.
F.D.R. understood the reality of the situation, but in the 70 years since the 1930's and 1940's, normal people and politicians have gradually lost focus.
AIG is the abbreviation for the American International Group. It is one of the largest private companies in the world. It has headquarters in London, Paris, Hong Kong, and New York. In the United States, AIG companies are the largest underwriters of commercial and industrial insurance and AIG American General is a top-ranked life insurer. The American government has now provided $180 billion to AIG and more will probably be required.
A great many people around the globe have their private old age pensions invested with AIG and other companies (such as General Motors) which are publicly owned and have their corporate stock traded on the stock exchanges. Most of these companies got heavily into the late 20th century "smoke and mirrors" go-go financial methods, and now that genuine reality is facing them the value of their stock has decreased at least by half. In many cases the loss has been far greater than 50%. Some people thought of the equity in their home as a form of retirement savings.
On the fringes of the legal and legitimate investments one finds that many apparently first class investment funds were heavily invested with crooks like Bernard Madoff, the New York Jew who ran the multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme. These old age pension fund investments have almost totally evaporated.
So whether people invest their private old age savings in blue chip companies or in the more aggressive investment funds the result is much the same. Over the course of a 40 year working career people put aside money so that they will have some level of dignity in their retirement. Then due to forces entirely beyond their control or comprehension, the money simply evaporates. It just goes away.
What the hell is the point of putting away a little money every pay day for 40 or 50 years if when you eventually absolutely have to retire due to declining health (or because you were laid off after your job went overseas) you find that the money you saved is not there. It has been stolen bit by bit in order to provide multi-million dollar bonuses to crooks on Wall Street, to buy them mansions and Porsches.
The government has to guarantee retirement savings. Period. FDR established the FDIC to guarantee bank deposits, but this government guarantee on retirement savings has to have no limits. With compound interest you can sock away a lot of money over 40 or 50 years. Every penny of the principal and the interest must be 100% guaranteed by the government.
Without this government guarantee the system breaks down completely. Old geezers who have lost everything after saving for 40 years will be out in the streets exercising their second amendment rights to bear arms. These old farts were alive during the Vietnam era, and all these desperate old bastards could be very destabilizing and dangerous. Can you imagine the Police and the National Guard having to shoot dead thousands of totally desperate old grey haired demonstrators? It is unthinkable.
Really. The entire system will crumble like a house of cards if the government does not make certain that all of the private money saved for your old age is safe.
FDR understood that. And this is why we have social security today.
With so much of the private savings just vanished into clear air the only sensible option is for the American federal government to raise the amounts paid for old age pensions substantially. All these old geezers need to have their health care fully, 100% paid. No deductibles, no exceptions.
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And on top of full health care, the government needs to make certain that every person over the age of 65 has a total income of at least $40,000- per year. Of course this has to be automatically indexed with inflation. In order to be fair, your private investments have to be taken into consideration. So if your private earnings from investments or private pensions are $20,000 each year, then the social security income you receive would fill in the other $20,000-. If you have private investments that give you $250,000- per year of private income, then social security would not pay you any retirement income.
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