“In Chile, a major study shows the nation’s private retirement accounts provide workers pensions worth 87% of their salaries, 73% of that from profits on savings.”
Culturally this is impossible in the US; we have a whole swath of our population that won’t work and/or save. In the end the ants will still have to feed the grasshoppers.
Not this ant. I intend to pull the legs off the grasshoppers one at a time.
It won’t work in the US because politicians will see a new pot of money and take it.
There are three problems with us going to it.
1. Yeah, there’s around twenty million Americans who depend on social security entirely, and basically have a check for $700 a month, which just gets them to a half-way marginal lifestyle. The fed guys don’t want to admit it, but these folks are screwed completely, and are in survival status with that marginal check.
2. You can’t find a single senator who will go into a forum and debate the merit of staying with social security or going to a private pension. None of them are bright enough or competent enough to debate it...either way. They depend on lobbyists to guide their votes.
3. Finally, you really need to think long-haul if you go to a private pension. That means you, the private guy, accept one recession every eight years, and plan to just live with it. Most folks aren’t that capable, if you ask me.
I’ve enjoyed the IRA deal, and the gov’t TSP deal. In fifteen years....I’ve grown zero to $160,000. No, I didn’t go ultra risk...I just simply played better odds only. I think any guy, with some decent understanding, can do as good a job as some Wall Street joker.
/johnny
This is exactly how a pension savings plan is supposed to work.
It doesn’t work this way here because wall street, investment advisors and such are all feeding at the trough of our savings and hard work.
401Ks suck.
That can change quickly. Europe had the same problem, then America was born.