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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: simplicity who wrote (486481)5/9/2012 6:01:05 PM
From: skinowski2 Recommendations  Read Replies (1) of 793830
 
I am a b-boomer too, a year younger. It's hard to tell whether Soc Sec and Medicare will continue providing about the same value for the foreseeable future, or will it all crash and disappear - as a result of a depression, or possibly an inter-generational rebellion of some sort.

So, as a practical matter, there isn't an awful lot we as individuals can do.

But for the future folks who may be discussing such matters and who may be designing workable new societies, it would be important to know whether inter-generational contracts such as SS are truly reliable. I would be much happier, no doubts, if all those serious funds that I paid out to the SS would be actually invested and held on my behalf - and in MY name. There probably would be enough to pay me -- AND to buy for me medical insurance for the rest of my life.

I had a chance to see an unraveling of such an intergenerational scheme when I traveled to Lithuania back in 1992, soon after Independence. The country was going through an economic depression and suffered from hyperinflation. I've noticed enough interesting things to keep me thinking about them for the past 20 years, but the relevant issue is the fate of their retirees - the pensioners. The standard pension in June of 1992 was 500 rubles a month - and they kept increasing that amount quite aggressively.

The problem was that prices were simply skyrocketing. At the time of my visit the exchange rate was 120 rubles for $1. In other words, people who expected the younger generation to provide for them had to survive on little over 4 bucks a month. Many were practically starving. The collapse of their inter-generational government sponsored contract was brutal.
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