Posted on 11/06/2015 7:11:59 AM PST by Academiadotorg
When academics are ready to fix a problem, hold onto your wallets.
“America’s middle class faces a growing retirement crisis,†Christian Weller and Teresa Ghilarducci write in an issue brief for the Center for American Progress (CAP). “More than half of all working-age households are expected to be at risk of having to cut back their standard of living—often making painful adjustments—when they retire. “
“There are several reasons for the ever-larger looming crisis, but people’s inability to save enough money is a key obstacle to achieving more retirement security. On average, Americans need to save between 10 percent and 20 percent of their salaries each year outside of Social Security to ensure a secure retirement. Yet nearly one-third of working-age Americans have no retirement savings or pension, and less than half of all private-sector workers participated in a retirement plan at work in 2013, the last year for which data are available.â€
Weller is a senior fellow at CAP and a professor at the University of Massachusetts. Ghilarducci is director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School for Social Research.
The problem as they see it is threefold:
“First, existing savings incentives can be overwhelming and incredibly complex.†“Second, savings incentives often benefit higher-income earners more than middle- and lower-income earners.†“Third, even as the savings incentives fail to prepare households adequately for retirement, the public loses out on increasingly large amounts of tax revenue that otherwise would have been collected without these tax breaks.“ In remarks at CAP, Ghilarducci repeatedly referred to the contributions Americans make to plans such as IRAs as “subsidies,†“tax expenditures,†and “money on the table.â€
In a panel discussion at CAP on the day before Halloween, Ghilarducci’s characterization of individual savings plans was echoed by New York University Law professor Lily Batchelder who characterized employee retirement accounts as “sort of like the government dumps the subsidy into your 401K.â€
That academics view individual earnings as government subsides is problematic enough, especially for the individuals. Even eerier, that notion has taken hold in the U. S. government, particularly during the current presidential administration, where Batchelder served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the National Economic Council.
Ghilarducci is an economic advisor to Hillary Clinton.
‘More than half of all working-age households are expected to be at risk of having to cut back their standard of living, often making painful adjustments, when they retire’
Didn’t we all realize we would have to scale back our lifestyles in retirement?? The false promise of a lifestyle of grandeur in retirement is manipulating naive people into believing the Government will give you everything you have ever wanted. Just keep electing them and they will even the playing field.....never mind that you may have spent your money unwisely during your working life. These Socialists don’t want equality of opportunity, they want equality of outcome. What they refuse to acknowledge is the SOME PEOPLE WILL WORK HARDER TO HAVE WHAT THEY WANT. Punishing the producers in this country will have an adverse effect on their production. We are spiraling down the plughole and the top of our Government is providing the water.
They’ll have to pry my investments from my cold, dead fingers.
The government incentivises pretax savings becuase they know the social security ponzi scheme will eventually collapse and they know people can’t afford to save becuase of high taxes, now their fiox is to tax them. Just beautiful....any wonder Trump is popular and politicians are hated?
Yes, talk about a zombie that keeps appearing...any time you see the Ghila monster's name, it's always associated with some program to steal private retirement accounts. It won't be long before an Obama, Sanders or a Clinton makes the claim that because of "tax breaks," retirement accounts really belong to the government. Then, it'll just be the way in which they come after them.
I forgot how damn funny this Levin interview was until I started listening to it as I posted it. There’s a couple things that come to mind right away:
1. She neglected to do her due diligence and didn’t know who she was talking to.
2. For much of the interview, he actually got away with claiming that she was the expert and he didn’t really know anything about anything. lol
There’s more, but you gotta listen for yourself.
Don’t worry. They’re not going to seize your money, they’re simply going to eliminate cash, mandate electronic payment, and the institute negative interest rates.
They won’t do that. Just look at how it was done in Argentina. The thieves were even re-elected because there were more takers than those who had their accounts seized and exchanged for government IOUs.
This topic occasionally comes up in discussion with more liberal acquaintances. My response is that “it is not my fault someone didn’t save for retirement”.
The libtard usually goes apoplectic and it’s quite entertaining.
In other words, government elitists are saying, “You cannot take care of yourself since you do not save enough in you IRA’s, 401k’s; so we need to take whatever money you have in these accounts to ‘take care of you’!”
They would raid the public pension funds...but there is no there there. :-)
I think they ripped all the money out of there long ago so they have to look to steal more from the private sector.
Nice folks we pay for huh?
Thanks for posting. Levin is great.
Of course, the fact that the tax burden on the typical American family is 40% may have something to do with it.
They’ll make some promise to the takers: “we’ll share THEIR retirement funds with you” (well not that direct but clear enough that the lure of Free Stuff is apparent) and the takers will head to the polls. The first test balloon was launched this week with Lizzie “Crockajawea” Warren floating a 40 billion bribe to senior citizens.
It is no longer the “one percent” it is now anyone who has managed to squirrel away anything. That is now seen as “unfair”, no matter that you worked hard to get it. A situation brought to you by the public school system and the welfare office.
I was thinking.... Maybe Ivy League endowments would be a good source of revenue to help retire some of the national debt... How say you???
even as the savings incentives fail to prepare households adequately for retirement, the public loses out on increasingly large amounts of tax revenue that otherwise would have been collected without these tax breaks
We don't save enough, but the money we do save takes away from tax revenue. Do these morons ever think cutting government spending, so less tax revenue is needed, might be a good idea?
If I had a dollar for every time that thought crossed my mind...I might be able to retire someday.
yeah. Or give them the option: no more federal aid or we start taxing your endowment
If she could get away with it, she'd confiscate all 401K funds immediately.
But, I think she knows that if she did, her life would be forfeit.
Indeed. If they want average Americans to save more, cut taxes. Cut mine by 10% and I'll put that right into a retirement savings vehicle.
The more likely path is to portray 401ks and IRAs as risky in their current format. They could be made far safer by requiring a small part (say 10%) the savings in a "safe" investments like government bonds. Then when that is "successful" the percentage will be bumped up to 25% and then 50%. Finally the only permitted investment will be lending it to the government. Will you be hanging government officials on a shift from 35% to 40% bond requirement?
They've boiled quite a few frogs in their lifetimes and they are experts at turning up the heat slowly.
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