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    MisterHamilton Nolan
    2/24/15 12:41pm

    Nobody should get pensions. And nobody should get retirement social security until age 72. It's supposed to be a lifeline, not a retirement plan.

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      the johnMister
      2/24/15 12:48pm

      Explain the logic behind your first statement. Your second, I understand.

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      GutbloomMister
      2/24/15 12:54pm

      Life expectancy is kind of tricky. Life expectancy at birth was 58 in 1940, but that is because a lot of babies died. Those babies never contributed to social security. The changes to life expectancy after attaining adulthood are more modest.

      The biggest change is due to population growth. In 1940 there were 9 million people eligible for social security. There are now more than 35 million. Thanks baby boomers!

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    endusoneHamilton Nolan
    2/24/15 12:31pm

    What company that isn't the government still offers a pension? That system is loooooong gone.

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      pebbledashendusone
      2/24/15 12:37pm

      During a recent job hunt, I found out that the NFL still offers its employees a defined benefit plan. I'm sure there are others, but it's definitely a dying breed.

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      TheLastConformistendusone
      2/24/15 12:37pm

      Not to new employees, but the people collecting pensions mostly accrued their benefits 20+ years ago.

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    $kaycogHamilton Nolan
    2/24/15 12:33pm

    Word.

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      Cam/ron$kaycog
      2/24/15 12:37pm

      My retired dad's current plan: spend the first year traveling to cities on his bucket list, spend the rest of his life using Facebook or watching YouTube videos while sipping Whiskey & Cokes.

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      $kaycogCam/ron
      2/24/15 12:40pm

      Sounds like a plan!

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    GirlArch1Hamilton Nolan
    2/24/15 1:03pm

    You can't work for 30 years and then not work for another 20, 30, or 40 years. As someone in my early 30s, it's astounding to me that people did (and some still do) have this as an option. I have an MA but earn at a low middle income level. I fully expect to be working until I croak. I'll attempt to take some nice vacations along the way, if I can afford it, but "retirement" will be an anachronism by the time I hit what we currently call SS-eligible age.

    I'd work up some rage against the boomers for leaving us in this state if I could, but every generation of Americans takes whatever their greedy little hands can grab so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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      kc2775GirlArch1
      2/24/15 1:36pm

      Problem with working until you grow old and die is no ones wants to employ old people. It doesn't matter what skills you have, there's someone younger who will do it for cheaper (unless, of course, you're a rich old white man in the executive suite).

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      mjskyeGirlArch1
      2/24/15 1:42pm

      I hope when you're 60 you never get a stroke, cancer, or serious heart condition. There are many reasons why older American's can't work.

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    mmsfcHamilton Nolan
    2/24/15 1:14pm

    Taking away pensions is one of the cruelest things this society has accepted as the norm. People are supposed to work themselves literally to death. Secured financial security in retirement was the trade for spending youth and middle age actively participating in an inherently unfair economy just to have some time to enjoy living at the back end. (Don't forget, it is retirees to take up the slack in child care and other unpaid labor that supports the working class who, in turn, hold up the upper classes who are wearing golf shoes while standing on workers' backs.)

    Except CEOs and the like get huge salaries. golden parachutes, pensions and stock options that secure their and two generations of their progeny a secure future. I just watched a failed CEO who eliminated pensions for his workers throw a temper tantrum over a change to his retirement options, one that left him with a mere $14 million in cash instead of $16 million. And the board conceded because it was easier to do that than deal with bad publicity!

    Meanwhile we workers are supposed to rely on the stock market and dubious financial vehicles in our 401Ks, which are a marketing scheme that was supposed to supplement pensions, not supplant them. When my company took away my pension and loaded up a substitute 401K, my projected retirement income went from $2100/month to $497/month. That's not even enough for food.

    Even putting aside 15% of my income, there's no way to make up the loss. I can't live now and live later. There isn't a Walmart in my town, so I don't know what I'll do.

    I'm not alone. Those of us who are considered to expensive or too old by employers so are having a hard time finding new jobs, are also taking care of aged parents, and have medical expenses our diminishing health insurance doesn't cover. Who could possibly imagine that after having done everything right all our lives, saved and invested and trusted the popular rhetoric, in our 50s, suddenly we're back at square one, only weighted down with responsibilities and worries our younger selves didn't have.

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      StegoToysmmsfc
      2/24/15 4:15pm

      Here's the kicker: 401k advisors already bank on Social Security making up the bulk of your retirement, and the 401k is there to "close the gap". That's how fucking sick this is, that a government lifeline (in its current, butchered form) is being treated as the "bulk" of the working class retirement, even by the folks making billions of dollars. I've got money with an old Government Contractor firm earning 10.5% YOY, but the money in my current employer makes 2.5% at best. Employer match is being constantly cut across the board in America, as employers don't want to have anything to do with retirement anymore, especially in their middle class.

      My generation is the one being fucked over, here. My Dad was the last of the baby boomers kids to get a Pension, and I missed the days of 10% company match to 401ks. I've been maxxing my contributions and Employer Match to 401k funds for almost a decade, and have saved less than fifty grand.

      Go fuck yourselves.

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      mmsfcStegoToys
      2/24/15 5:19pm

      As long as tax and employment law is eroded to favor the few and the fictional, that is, top level management, financial services industries and corporations, we workers will be trapped in a downward spiral. Although people seem to think there's social mobility and a meritocracy, we've recreated a feudal society. At core is the demeaning of labor and the portrayal of poverty as a character flaw.

      Despite the truth that the already well-off have become incredibly well-off largely because of corporate manipulation of law and lack of financial regulation, Americans believe they will be bestowed some miraculous wealth. It isn't one generation that's made this mess. So many people subscribe to the mistaken belief that individualism is the same is exceptionalism, that we have, since President Nixon, more and more hastily pulled apart the stabilizing forces of labor law, financial regulation and social safety.

      Every person that votes for anti-union, anti-civil service politicians is part of the problem. Every union that fails to convey the importance and duty of unions and union officials to represent workers' rights is part of the problem. Every place that offers tax breaks to multi-billion dollar companies, every legislator that writes a law undermining employee rights and employer responsibilities is at fault. Everyone who pretends we live in a meritocracy and proselytizes the virtues of fewer regulations and "small government" is ignoring how power and money corrupts democratic and economic processes.

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    TopherHamilton Nolan
    2/24/15 12:34pm

    Luckily this won't affect me, I'm enrolled in Blue Cross' Soylent Retirement Plan.

    Best feature? They have 24 support where you can always talk to a real person. They always care about people and put people first. Like they say in their commercials: Soylent - it's people.

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      JimEmeryTopher
      2/24/15 12:41pm

      All that hype about "the first person to live to 150 has already been born!" is such BS. That person better be rich or else they'll be living on the street, most likely bankrupted by medical bills.

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      TopherJimEmery
      2/24/15 12:48pm

      Luckily for us we're creating an Ultra-rich upper class who can afford their medical bills forever.

      The only downside is the rest of us will be poorer and have shorter lives.

      But really, isn't that a small price to pay compared to the horrors of having Universal health care?

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    LeNoceurHamilton Nolan
    2/24/15 1:09pm

    True story: I am recently divorced. Ex has a (fully vested) traditional DB pension, I have 401(k). Her attorney wanted to split both of them. I should have let her, but I am a nice guy, so I spent a looonnnggg time persuading this lawyer that the DB pension was much more valuable than my 401(k), and that she was doing her client a grave disservice by proposing to give half of those benefits to me in exchange for half of my 401(k). People do not understand how truly valuable a DB pension is (especially compared to the alternatives), and I applaud your efforts to bang this particular drum.

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      mjskyeLeNoceur
      2/24/15 1:39pm

      LoneBunny is just jealous of your intelligence. Don't listen to it - I think it's just a computer program anyway.

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    ThewalkingdudeHamilton Nolan
    2/24/15 12:39pm

    This is why we need cigarettes. We need to ensure that there are socially accepted ways to kill ourselves slowly.

    Drugs kill people too early- bad diet is a crap shoot. Only tobacco can save us.

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      KmuzuHamilton Nolan
      2/24/15 12:36pm

      The problem with pensions is when it shifted from a defined benefit to a defined contribution during the Reagan era.

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        Medieval KnievelKmuzu
        2/24/15 12:49pm

        No, the opposite is true. Defined contribution plans, by definition, are doing fine. It's the defined benefit plans that are causing trouble, because of poor actuarial projections of lifespan, healthcare-cost inflation and interest rates.

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        PeteRRKmuzu
        2/24/15 12:52pm

        The IRS fucked that up. It had nothing to do with Reagan. My brother worked as a benefits consultant back then and he gave me chapter and verse one time about it.

        In order to avoid paying taxes on profits, companies were putting that extra cash into their pension plans. The IRS put the kibosh to it, because they wanted their percentage, so that began the conversion of them into 401k plans.

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      FredDorfmanHamilton Nolan
      2/24/15 1:44pm

      My retirement plan was to buy a boat and sail around south america until I died of something, preferably but not likely old age. But I got married, and my wife is definitely not down with it. Women are lame, yo.

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        MoonsnailFredDorfman
        2/24/15 1:51pm

        Female here and that is also my plan. Boat shopping now! We're not all lame.

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        FredDorfmanMoonsnail
        2/24/15 1:56pm

        Fair enough. Fair winds and following seas to you!

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