Ezra Klein Knocks CEOs and Pundits for Wanting to Raise Retirement Age to 70

[ProfessionalLeftist]

We've written about this over and over again here at C&L and what a bad idea it is to be calling for the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare to be raised -- how it just inflicts pain on the poor at a time of record income disparity. Not to mention the fact that there are other ways to address our debt and deficits other than attacking our social safety nets! It was nice to see Ezra Klein once again give some grief to the wealthy CEOs and pundits out there who have downplayed just how damaging these policies are for anyone who actually works for a living and is not sitting in some cushy, over-paid job. They don't care when or if they retire because they love their jobs.

Meanwhile, working people are in so much pain from the hard work they do, they take a big hit on their benefits to retire early.

For anyone that missed the segment, you can check that out here: Ezra Klein: Raising Social Security Retirement Age Concentrates Pain on the Poor.

MORE...

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/ezra-klein-knocks-ceos-and-pundits-wanting

EDIT: @BizRoundtable is their twitter address. I plan to tweet them this article. Bastards.

[WillyT]

1. K & R !!!

[MindPilot]

2. This is getting old...so to speak

When I was 12, they raised the age you could buy fireworks to 14. When I was 14, the age for a learner's permit went to 15. When I turned 18, the drinking age went to 21. Approaching retirement the pattern is pretty clear.

[dawg]

3. But we've got to cut back. The safety net is unaffordable.

Yeah. I had better include one of these:

I know we just made most of the Bush tax cuts permanent, but we had no choice. So stop saying anything about that!

And I know we spend more on national defense than the next 14 countries combined (and most of those are our allies), but that can't be changed. So stop bringing it up!

And sure, taxes as a share of GDP are at a ridiculously low level, and will still be low now that the fiscal cliff deal has been done, but .............. Job Creators!

So suck it up. Accept the inevitable Social Security and Medicare cuts that are coming. Even if they don't happen under Obama, this notion of "fiscal responsibility" is so ingrained in Washington groupthink that is is probably unavoidable.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

6. Yes it's a good thing you put that there...

...I'd have been after you! LOL!

[dawg]

7. In the past, I have not used it ...

But I posted such foolish right-wing nonsense I thought anyone with a brain could tell it was satire.

But invariably, I would get lots of "right-on" replies from some of the "sensible" centrists of DU.
At some point, reality gets so twisted that satire is impossible.

[mountain grammy]

11. Sometimes you just have to keep repeating the talking points

to understand how ridiculous they really are. Even folks who believe this crap and keep repeating it over and over, at some point have to look in the mirror and at what's happening all around them and ask: REALLY?

[n2doc]

24. As you note, the problem is that some people believe that crap

And we get enough RW trolls posting similar stuff, all in 'innocence'.

It does amaze me know the bloated military always gets a pass. Maybe Hagel will be able to cut some of the pork, maybe not. And 'homeland security' will never be cut. Gotta be secure while one is starving/freezing/ill-from-curable-disease to death.

[John2]

23. I'm really

seeing something else going on. There are some people working more than one job because they aren't paid enough for some jobs. Some companies by these CEOs are over working people to get more profits for share holders. The people that hire are in management. If you can get people to do more for less pay, it is more profitable. I think these companies are more interested in their profits than creating more jobs. I think it is false to think demand for services have declined.

The people at the top have formed political organizations and groups the same as Unions, where they dominate access to opportunities for others. They decide who gets hired or move upwards in these organizations as long as they monopolize goods and services of skilled workers. That is where controlling Government comes in for these people. They influence the Laws in this country. They have their own Lobbyists to do this. As long as Government is controled or out of the way, they control the jobs because Government is one of the biggest creators if jobs in the economy and seen as a competitor.

With Government out of the way, then you have no control over the inflation of prices by the private sector. As long as a few individuals can monopolize goods and services, they can control the prices of goods and services. They can control the prices of Education, Healthcare or any other neccessity a person needs to survive. The problem with services is the rising costs of them and less people being able to afford them. Our problem is Vulture Capitalism which sees and controls by Government as Communist or Socialist. Vulture Capitalists donot care about jobs or people but profits. That wealth gives them control over others. Murdoch and the Koch brothers are a very good example of Vulture Capitalists.

[gollygee]

4. Our economy's biggest problems are

1) not enough jobs for everyone

and

2) the jobs we have don't pay enough.

People have to be able to spend money for our economy to be healthy. People need jobs, and they need their jobs to pay enough for them to have money to spend.

Putting more people into the job force to compete for what few jobs there are even more and drive down wages even more is not a solution for our two problems.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

5. Totally agreed. And, fixing those two things would put more money into social security

and Medicare through taxes of more people working and better working wages. And the cap needs to be raised or eliminated.

[Skittles]

8. there are PLENTY of jobs for everyone in America

but they are pimped to the lowest overseas bidders

[gollygee]

9. Yes if we kept those jobs here

we'd have plenty. And there would be enough competition for good workers that they'd pay well.

Which is why they're overseas, of course.


Sigh.

[antigop]

15. and a lot of the good jobs (engineering and IT, e.g.) are being outsourced nt

[CTyankee]

10. This is why we no longer see Ezra Klein on Morning Joe. He would make mincemeat out of Joe and

bobble head Mika.

[90-percent]

12. Blankfein

I've always found this Olympic caliber sociopathic greedhead to be slightly more galling than the rest of the Wall Street Sociopath/Titans of Finance. This m-f'er pulls in 16 million a year in compensation for doing his "God's work". Seriously, that is an exact quote from him describing how he earns his living.

Based on his suggestion to raise the retirement age and lower the expectations for SS confirms he has the grasp of economics of a fifth grader that has no access to the internet or public library.

Does he have any clue as to what the working life of an average blue collar worker is like? Carpenters, construction workers, auto repairmen, carpet installers, drywall people, heavy equipment operators, tree surgeons, and all others that do strenuous physical work for a living usually have their bodies noticeably breaking down in their late fifties and spend the balance of their working life in severe pain, unless they opt for the cushy Walmart Greeter gigs, for the lavish health insurance free minimum wage.

Ezra says the life expectancy for blue collar people that do physical work has only gone up 1-1/2 years in the same time period the White collar folks live ten years longer.

AND WHAT SORT OF FUCKING JOB IS A 65 YEAR OLD GOING TO GET ANYWAY?

There are so many of us in America that were white collar workers that were surprised to become layoff fodder once they reached fifty! There are so many of us on DU with stories of spending over a year to find a job somewhat comparable to what we lost in our last layoff. Or scaling back and adjusting to a subsistence lifestyle foregoing all the goodies of modern life we used to take for granted.

I think most rational and well educated economists would argue that the best thing for employment, the economy and growing the SS fund bigger is to lower the retirement age to 60 and perhaps even earlier. (Thom Hartmann argues eloquently about this) This would make room for so many young people struggling to enter the workforce and score a "good job". To make people work until seventy is not only cruel to the old people, it is denying the chance for young people to make their way into the world with a good job and hopes for a good future.

I don't know what this Blankfein does at work to justify his lavish salary, because he certainly is ignorant about economic basics if he argues that raising the retirement age is somehow good for anybody, including the general economy. The only thing Lloyd will get if his suggestions are implemented is an Ebenezer Scrooge-like enjoyment over inflicting so much cruelty to so many people.

I have a bumper sticker on my Ranger tailgate:

OUR INSTITUTIONS ARE INFESTED WITH CORRUPT SOCIOPATHS

I should add Blankfein's picture to it.

-90% jimmy

[ProfessionalLeftist]

20. +10000 I also cannot *stand* the arrogant psychopath Lloyd Blankfein

Or the rest of his ilk. At least most of the rest of them stay out from in front of television cameras and don't flaunt their GODdamned arrogance and greed so publicly.

I remember our Republican CONgress kissing the ass of Jamie Dimon on Capitol Hill after the M-F'er helped destroy this economy.

BOTH of them belong in prison.

[Bjornsdotter]

13. Saw it

...and Ezra did a wonderful job!

[bloomington-lib]

14. Anyone know what CEOs proposed raising the age? I'd like to not give them my business.

[antigop]

16. The Business Roundtable is pushing this...list of members here...

http://businessroundtable.org/about-us/members/

[SoapBox]

18. One of them is that multi-billionaire CLOWN

Blankenshit or whatever the hell is name is...CEO at Goldman? That just got a HUGE package of some kind?

Assholes like these, need to be EXCLUDED from the conversation.

[TheKentuckian]

19. Nearly impossible as an individual participating in mainstream society

and actually impossible as a taxpaying citizen. Add in those in agreement that just aren't in this organization and we see the "stakeholders" on the march against us.

[SoapBox]

17. Social Security is ALREADY on a sliding age scale...67 is the FULL retirement age.

"Full retirement age is the age at which a person may first become entitled to full or unreduced retirement benefits.

No matter what your full retirement age (also called "normal retirement age&quot is, you may start receiving benefits as early as age 62 or as late as age 70.

If You Retire Early: You can retire at any time between age 62 and full retirement age. However, if you start benefits early, your benefits are reduced a fraction of a percent for each month before your full retirement age.

The chart below (see link) lists age 62 reduction amounts and includes examples based on an estimated monthly benefit of $1000 at full retirement age. Click on your year of birth to find out how much your benefit will be reduced if you retire between age 62 and full retirement age."

65 WAS the full retirement age...now it's 67.

How many of you know this? It gets ZERO mention by talking-head types and PukeBaggerHaters...not to mention the multi-billionaire CEO types.

Check it out for yourself.

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/retire2/agereduction.htm


AND, Medicare age increase? NEVER! Do not EVER let it happen. Period.

[Smilo]

21. They way they look at it is

they work a person to the bone - little time off, almost no sick time off, they have people retire later and those people die earlier - so savings all around for them.

While they sit in their ivory towers making all those "hard" decisions and wonder where they will spend their vacations.

'eff them.

[juajen]

22. I am very mad that women's contributions to the work force and family are so ignored.

Giving birth can take a huge toll on some women, not to mention the care that then ensues. I raised five children and worked outside the home. These children have paid a lot of taxes in this country, and still are. My husband became totally disabled in his early forties, and, again, I was the caregiver. Eventually, I had to take early SS. I was ill, but did not have healthcare, so, just struggled on. I had life threatening heart attack, two strokes and other debilitating illnesses; but, carried on. Don't even ask how those bills got paid.

The day I became medicare covered was one of the happiest days of my life. Yes, it should have come earlier. Why can't they cover a man or woman early if they are caring for a disabled person and have life threatening health conditions as well? I was "white collar", if you can call slaving away at a typewriter forever "white collar". We didn't have corrective, supportive chairs back then, and my back still hurts, as well as other parts of my body. I then got home and had dinner to cook, homework to help with, laundry to do, dogs to let out and, finally, in bed, sometimes with work brought from the office, at around 12 o'clock and sometimes 1 o'clock, I would drift off to sleep, only to rise at 5 o'clock to begin again. Most of that time, until he became disabled, my husband was traveling three states doing his job, until disaster struck. Some easy life I had! It is not only men who toil mightily; and, at least they get to come home to their wife cooking supper, clean laundry and a sorta clean house, and the added benefit of thousands of dollars added to the coffer. I was good at what I did, but the 24-7 work I had to do is so under appreciated in this country that it is disgusting. Just saying. I am 70 and a widow, and still have not really retired. Oh well.