Pensions and retirement are certainly nice ideas if you were born at the right time. But younger people are not likely to see lavish pensions paid for by others. And retirement at 55 or 65 might be an untenable idea. Of course, it’s part of the expectation now — part of the American Dream. But I expect more and more people to be disappointed in this and I think more and more people will work until they are 70 or 75. The notion that everybody retires with a nice nest egg and moves to Florida seems like a 20th century idea.
And certainly the taxpayers should wake up and realize that the “public servants” have been getting away with the sweetest deal on the planet. It’s a ripoff, and taxpayers should seek to pull the plug on that deal.
Get rid of seniority based pay and COLA's, and the last problem would disappear.
We are going through a transition now, and it will get worse before it gets better. But gradually people are going to have to come to terms with the fact that they need to save for their own retirements. The world will be divided between those who participate early and regularly in thrift savings plans, buy affordable houses, and live within their means, vs. those who don't. With IRA's and 401(k)'s, middle income people have much better savings options than my generation did when we started out. They need to take advantage of them. But first we have to get rid of the idea that someone else will be around to fund our comfortable retirements.
That is certainly happening now. I have employees in their 70s, some of whom talk about retiring but never seem to get around to it. And I work for the government (DOD).