Question about retiring Baby Boomers.....

[borlis]

I was reading a thread on Social Security running out because of so many retiring Baby Boomers and wondering if and when this huge number of people do start to retire, will there finally be some jobs to be had? I still don't see the economy as good as people paint it out to be.

[LSparkle]

1. Hopefully, because those of us in the workforce are going to be paying

LOTS more in payroll taxes to take care of them ... Let's hope at least we'll end up with some of their "high-paying" jobs to help us do it.

[acmejack]

4. I'm sorry, I paid in my taxes in good faith.

I hate to see posts like yours which seem to imply I am screwing you over simply by surviving long enough to collect some Social Security. The target of your scorn should be the Legislators who ripped off the SS trust fund, the corporatists who trashed our 401Ks, the speculators who managed to swindle the average investors a couple of times in the Stock Market, but not the Boomers whose only offense against you was an accident of demographics.

[LSparkle]

9. My apologies -- and my mother is one I'll gladly be taking care of

My comment was more to bring attention to the fact that hopefully there will be a "trade-off" -- that when boomers retire there will be expanded opportunities so that people who will continue to work won't have to work two or three Wal-Mart jobs in order to make it to retirement themselves.

[eleny]

11. My job was eliminated when I retired - "vacancy savings"

I was a state employee. Our Repuke governor was always looking to save a dime in the present to feather his nest for a presidential run in '08. But then he knocked up the family nanny and the rest is history.

[borlis]

16. My sister has worked for Kraft for almost 30 years

and they have had plenty of that in her department in the last few years. The woman she shared her cube with left and my sister got that job handed to her too. With only a 2% regular yearly increase. Then my sister's boss who is based in New Jersey tells her she should be delegating more work to her admin. so she can focus different things other than "busy work." So she starts doing just that and now her admin's job is being eliminated. So, now she will be doing three jobs. And because she has been with the company so long, she is at the top of her salary range and will only get a minimal increase.

[TahitiNut]

20. Let's do the "math" ... OK?

The first Boomer will be retiring with full benefits at age 67 in (1946+67) 2013. If we regard 1968 as the last year of the "baby boom" then the last Boomer will be retiring somewhere around (1968+67) 2035. The dire predictions of trust fund depletion are around 2050. At that point, about 90% of the Boomers will be dead. (Those who, through a sense of economic responsibility, smoke will die earlier.) Thus, it's NOT the Boomers who will be responsible for the so-called Social Security problem.

Indeed, the Boomers are the first generation who not only pay Social Security payroll taxes for current (WW2 generation) retirees, but an excess on top of that to defray their own costs. Thus, the Gen-X and Me-First generation doesn't have a fucking thing to blame the Boomers for.

The REAL 'problem' with Social Security is the decimation of the share of the national income pie given the 'bottom 90%' ... the people who actually WORK(!) for their income! Let's remember, Social Security is supported by payroll taxes ... taxes on the income one gets for their own labor. Investment income isn't subject to a payroll tax - and is taxed as income at half the rates of earned income!

The whole reason the Trust Fund is projected to be depleted is because the economic assumptions include a continuing screw job for the bottom 90%!

The quickest and most effective 'improvement' to the Social Security Trust Fund would be an increase in the Federal Minimum Wage. Rather than just $7.25, it should be increased to $8.50 at least. Absolutely every dollar extra earned due to a minimum wage increase gets payroll taxed.

[CelticWinter]

2. Im not sure how many boomers will be retiring

in the near future especially with the way the economy has gone, and how about all those lost retirement accounts. I do know that there are boomers like myself getting an education in another field other than the one they were in most of their life. I will be working til I am 75 :)
Celtic

[borlis]

5. I hear you!!

I just went back to school, preparing to return full time to the work force (I've been lucky enough to be a stay at home Mom, I only work part-time in the evenings a couple of nights a week) but the way the economy is going, the way my husband's job is going and also the fact that EVERYTHING is so expensive, I will have to go back when my 4 year old is in school all day. I am also trying to talk my husband into going back. He is in the tool and die industry which is dying a slow death in this country. I feel like we will also be working until we die. I read somewhere that our generation will be the first not to be better off than their parents.

[eleny]

14. That really breaks my heart

Today I went to lunch with two women I used to work with at the state. One of them spent her working life in a social services career. But she's a dyed in the wool Republican. She got an earful today about how her grandchildren deserve a better life than having to pay off their college loans instead of planning to help put their own kids through school some day.

I pointed out how my parents worked in tailoring factories sewing coat pockets in NYC for a living and put my older brother and I through private universities in the 1960s. And mom only went back to work when I got to college. So Dad supported our family and put my brother through college all on his factory salary. Sure mom was a frugal whiz. But it's not likely that my folks' achievements will be an American template for the future.

You deserve better. Hopefully, together we can make it better country for your kids.

[Journeyman]

3. I was told once, the ratio of workers to retired in 1935. . .

was about 5 to 1. Now it's a little over 2 to 1. I've told my wife, when it hits 2:1 they're moving in with us. No sense paying the extra rent.

[Mountainman]

7. Once we die you all can party your asses off with all that Social Security

money you are not spending on us. Remember you too will get old and have to depend on the younger to pay into Social Security unless you are ready to put up the 2.5 billion is will take to open private retirement accounts that have no guarantee they will pay out anything and contain payments to the brokers who will churn your money to make their profits.

I myself have a wife who is 17 years younger than me and she will work after I retire at 67 or 70. I've been paying FICA taxes since 1964 and expect to get retirement benefits when I do retire.

[AlCzervik]

6. my Dad is 65, he won't retiring for at least 5 more years.

[magellan]

8. SS running out has very little to do with retiring baby boomers

...and everything to do with the government looting the SS surplus funds to the tune of billions since GHWB.

Dems will create jobs. Outsourcing must first be regulated.

[TahitiNut]

21. See my post at ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2418248&mesg_id=2419655

The so-called "looting" of the Trust Fund has NOTHING to do with it. NOTHING! Do you think your savings are buried in some mayonnaise jar in the bank's backyard? The Trust Fund is loaned out in the safest securities available: T-Bills. Those loans pay interest.


No, the reason there's a projected depletion of the Trust Fund has to do with how the PAYROLL BASE has been fucked over ... and the bottom 90% in particular. Social Security is paid by WORKERS. Payroll Taxes. When the aggregate payroll base is decimated, SS suffers. Pay the 'bottom 90%' an equitable wage and Social Security is sound.

[magellan]

22. That isn't all there is to it

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ARTICLE2/budget.html

[TahitiNut]

23. That's just tabloid bullshit, designed to sensationalize not inform.

This is a subject with which I'm quite familiar. The Trust Fund has been intentionally increased since the mid-1980s to prepare for the 'boomer' retirement.

The only slight-of-hand has been in the (so-called) "unified budget" where the politicians have included the various trust funds, of which OASDI is by far the largest, in the NET deficit figures that they TALK about. When they include the trust funds, it makes the deficit sound smaller than it is. The underlying REALITY is unchanged. It's only about giving themselves permission to spin a less "scary" number.

In the graph below, we can more easily see where the money is being borrowed to fund the Federal Debt. The portion along the bottom represents the various trust funds managed by the federal government - from which money is borrowed to finance government operations. After boomers start retiring a lot, that trust fund will, AS IT WAS INTENDED TO DO, start decreasing. It is INTENDED to be a 'reserve' against the future retirement of boomers ... far more than the original intent of merely holding a moderate reserve. That's why, in the mid-1980s, Congress decided to increase the payroll tax rate and adjust retirement age - to build the reserve.

[TheCowsCameHome]

10. Repukes want you to work until you die. Don't forget that.

Retiring is out of the question for many citizens. The stick is getting longer, and the carrot is all but gone.

[LSparkle]

12. Absolutely -- I'm afraid I'll never be able to retire

or "retirement" will mean working at a job that I hopefully will enjoy more than the one I currently have. I just pray I won't have to work at something that's physically beyond my capability or demoralizing when I get older.

[TheCowsCameHome]

13. It's a sad thing. I got out at 60, but that's all but impossible anymore.

This country worries more about others than our own.

[LSparkle]

15. Seriously -- I think we only had about 2 generations of Americans

who REALLY got to enjoy their retirements. My grandparents and my parents did (my mother continues to) but at 45, I'm afraid that many people my age and younger probably won't be taking cruises and playing golf, all the things the commercials show "retired people" doing today.

[greendog]

17. Baby Boomer here...

...when we were kids:

The US managed to afford the cold war. Managed to afford the Vietnam war. Managed to build the interstate highway system from scratch. Managed to afford the space program (Mercury thru Apollo). Managed to afford all the new schools and clinics that were made necessary by the "baby boom".

Back then moms could afford to stay at home. Dads made enough in 40 hours to keep their families comfortable (and paid enough taxes to keep the govt going).

We built most of our cars and trucks right here in the USA. Most of our heavy equipment. Most of our consumer electronics. Most of our clothing. Developed most of our technology. Produced most of our food.

What's happened since then?

>>>>"The rich" decided to take more than "their fair share".<<<<<

When the boomers retire we should be able to:

1. Take care of all the boomers.
2. Have plenty of decent jobs for anyone who wants to work.
3. Do anything else that needs to be done.

"The rich" will just have to adjust their expectations.

[sandnsea]

18. In the trades

I don't have the article at hand, but I read it about 6 months ago. Health care is and will be huge for a long time, obviously. But also the trades, young people just didn't do the apprentice thing the way boomers did. Boomers sent all their kids to college. So there's supposed to be opportunities for plumbers, electricians, proverbial air conditioner repair, etc. Then again, why do you think we're really bringing in all these illegal immigrants? Take their FICA without having to pay it back to them down the road.

[tech3149]

19. This old fart hasn't officially retired or ever collected unemployment

I will say that there are many in my age group that haven't put away much for retirement. Most of us know that full retirement isn't a likely option. Those of us that could put money away probably started too late or could not set aside enough. Some of us got nailed by huuueegggeee losses because of the stock market. If the current business/political climate continues, the only increase in jobs will be low-wage service sector jobs. You're right, the economy doesn't look as good as the pig their putting their lipstick on. I figure whether you're young or old, your being screwed. If you want to get through this shit in good shape, get all your compensation up front, live as cheaply as possible, and put your savings in something that is stable over the long term.

Hang in there, we may be competing for the same Wal Mart greeter job in the next few years.