A VOX article that lets us look iniside the mind of the left as to their understanding of the "common man", and what ought be done relative to "average people". They believe that humans CAN'T learn to save for the future, so the important job falls on business and the government -- "the elite",
There’s a reason, it turns out, why employers didn’t hand retirement planning off to workers: 401(k)s are terrible at ensuring that those who need to save for retirement do. Indeed, over the same period in which 401(k)s expanded, the share of working-age households at risk of being financially unprepared at age 65 jumped from 31 percent (in 1983) to more than 53 percent (in 2010). Indeed, the terribleness of 401(k)s helped spark a new field of behavioral economics, which showed that voluntary plans in which people manage their own investments defy everything we know about how the brain works.
Reading the short book "The Millionaire Next Door" explains that most of the wealthy in America are people that follow a simple rule ... spend less than you make, put the savings in something that goes up in value. Naturally, there are LOTS of forces trying to tell you that is "foolishness". "What will a million dollars be worth in 50 years anyway?" Is one of the things I've heard ... the answer ; "A million dollars more than zero". As a corollary, MUCH more than a million dollars MINUS a bunch of debt and interest paid out of your pocket!
There are a whole host of reasons that people are more unprepared for retirement today than in '83 ... massive regulation, the economy being basically stagnant for a decade from '08-'16, crushing taxes including ever more crushing FICA tax (in 1975 it was 5.85 on the first 14k, today it is 6.2 on the first 127K! $819 vs $7,874), lots of inflation (much of it undeclared once the government got into the "inflation adjusted" business), no interest on savings, crushing medical costs made 3-5x MORE crushing on those who DID save by BOcare ... the list is just endless and much of the "help" keeping people down is courtesy of the the elite through the Davos crowd, government, and Deep / Administrative State.
However, the BIG reason remains that FICA gives people a very false sense of "security". If it had been created as what it actually is -- "old age POVERTY welfare" (and a giant new federal tax), which would only go to people without savings, assets, pensions and other income streams, then a much higher percentage of people would save more. It **IS** welfare for elderly, and increasingly if you are not impoverished in old age your small benefit is taxed away from you anyway.
In other words, like typical government, those that pay the most get the least -- or nothing.
**IF** the government actually wanted to "help the irresponsible common man", they would do what W proposed ... put something like the FICA percentage in private non-profit fiduciary managed fund of broad indices of stocks, bonds, property, commodities, metals, etc. NOTHING is "certain", and CERTAINLY NOT THE GOVERNMENT! (see numerous failed governments over history ... Venezuela currently, 100's of them around the globe over the past century or so, with runaway inflation in Germany in the early 1920's being a well known case with an "advanced" nation.
Of course, telling the truth would have never given the giant boost to government spending that FICA did. It was set up so that everyone could imagine getting it, but the original dates you could get it insured that very few would actually collect, and most of those would not collect for long. It was a HUGE "win win" for the government ASSUMING "an ever growing employed population, an ever expanding economy, and not very many people reaching retirement age" -- all assumptions that have proven spectacularly wrong like most "government projections".
It really was successful for what it was supposed to be -- a massive vote buying Democrat party operation.
The reality of it all is that "there is no free lunch" ... the vast majority of people (and businesses) MUST spend less than earned and put the remainder in something that goes up in value. When they don't, the person, business or country will go bankrupt and have NOTHING!
"Liberalism" may look and sound "paternalistic", but no good father would really follow policies that are guaranteed to lead to bankruptcy! The idea that the population is less responsible than the government is obvious idiocy in even a democratic republic! Who votes in the supposed "wise men" that are going to care for us all? The same idiots that can't spend less than they make and put the difference in something that rises in value!
Those elected "wise men" have run up over $200 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities ON TOP of the over $20 TRILLION in US debt. On top of that, state and local debt exceeds $3 TRILLION!
Remember, the people running that up are the "elite" VOX assures you ought to have MORE power because they are "smart and responsible" and you can count on them taking "good care of you"!
Naturally, those folks will tell you that anyone that advises "God, Guns and Gold" is a COMPLETE idiot ... you would not want to be called names by the elite would you?
