Anyone looked at your Social Security statement?

[JohnBT]

I hate taxes.

And you want the Feds to tax my retirement accounts BEFORE I take the money out? Ha, good luck getting that passed.

An unrelated story. My uncle worked for General Electric for 35 years as an engineering assistant (no degree) and bought a little stock along the way. His wife hasn't worked since WWII. He died 30 years ago. She now collects about $1000/mo. from Social Security and the GE stock (and a much smaller amount of Phil. Gas & Elec.) is now worth almost a million. Of course she's taxed on part of her SS check.

I know GE stock has been especially successful over the years, but imagine what she'd have if all of his SS taxes had been invested in GE stock.

I'd like to have the $800k in estate taxes my other aunt and uncle's estate paid even though their money was tied up in 2 trust accounts. Good thing Delaware law allowed them to shelter a lot of it. He worked blue collar tech jobs for DuPont and also bought GM stock during WWII. They bought a little house in 1951 and stayed in it. (The trusts are sitting there in case, if, ever, my mother and her twin, the one with the GE stock, ever need the money. Doesn't look like they will, although my mom has just been diagnosed with mid-level Alzheimer's and secure care will chew through savings at $4k or $5k a month.)

John...still living the $41k fixer-upper I bought in 1980. The real estate taxes on the new assessment of $320k should be right around $325/mo., almost the size of my first mortgage payment. Good thing I only bought a 1350 sq.ft. house on a 25.5' x 90' lot. 

[Fly320s]

Lee,

Good point.  But, those taxes will be on long term investments (for the most part) for people who's gross income has dropped considerably.  So, the overall tax collected just might go down (I'm not Greenspan or Friedman so correct me if i'm wrong).

Another thing to consider:  Those millions of baby boomers have the vast majority of their money invested in the stock market in some form or another.  The retirees make up about 25% of the total US population.  They will all retire over a 20 year span.  During that 20 years, they will cash-out their investments.  That's 25% of the population cashing in their stocks over a short time.[\B]  What will that do to the stock market?

[mdhunter]

Lee,

Good points, and right on except one: I gotta admit to still believing in Santa Claus...I've never seen him and I know he doesn't reside in the DC/Maryland area, but I'm still a believer....   

Fly: You makea good point about the stock market, and about what will happen when all of us boomers retire.  That's the same reason I keep harping on everyone under 35 to STOP spending so much, and start saving more - when we all retire, we will likely get more conservative in our consumption, which will have a significant impact on both the economy and the market.  The youngers adults will be in a much better financial position, if they don't rack up a lot of debt.

I keep telling people if they're REALLY concerned about the environment, stop buying a bigger house and car every time they think thay can afford it, and stick that cash into the market instead.  People are slow to convert, but the ones who do, are really glad after a year or two.

Michael

[Art Eatman]

Boomers:  That's a group of some 56 million.  Of them, 28 million have a net worth of no more than $50,000.

The COLA increase for SS is the same as the official inflation rate.  Just under 3%.  Trouble is, lotsa stuff is climbing in costs at a rate well above 3%.  So, that "guaranteed" check will buy less and less and less...

Do some googling on "unfunded liabilities" of the Fortune 500 retirement programs.  For the feds, it's around 60 trillion.  (Aw, what's five or ten trillion, one way or the other? )

Also look at the number of people who contribut to SS, per recipient.  Compare the decline in that number, through the years.

Interesting times, these next ten or fifteen years.

Art

[Ben]

And to add insult to injury.......

Social Security for illegal aliens
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070104-120950-4277r.htm

[Lee]

Gee thanks Art.  Here's a little more sunshine. 
http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/cda05-06.cfm

My mother turns 79 this year.  She still lives in the house where I was raised, and most of the old neighbors still live there there as well.  Every time we talk, I get a collective update on all the latest illnesses, injuries, and surgeries the hood has had.  I'd guess that those 10 or so people go through about a million bucks worth of medical procedures a year...and that is on top of SS and whatnot.  Yet, they still gripe about the cost of the co-pay on the meds that keep them alive and the profits the drug companies make.  I work for a drug company.  We haven't had a decent raise in years, we've had a hiring freeze for years...and we get heart palpitations every time Hillary's name is mentioned.
And never mind the fact that tens of millions of dollars are spent on research to develop the drugs that they want for cheap...or... that the money simply goes down the tube if the clinical trial doesn't pan out...or if they sue us when they lose vision instead of getting an erection.
Sorry to ramble...but SS will not be the only thing the upcoming generations will pay for and not receive.  If and/or when socialist medicine hits town, there will be no more great advances in medicine...not here in the US anyway.               


 

[Art Eatman]

Some ten years ago I read that the R&D cost, and including the FDA hoops, for any new antibiotic was somewhere around $120 million.  The Europeans then do whatever "reverse engineering" is needed and sell it around the world as a generic.

Art

[280plus]

they sue us when they lose vision instead of getting an erection.

They shouldn't take that stuff when they're alone! 

[brimic]

I work for a drug company.  We haven't had a decent raise in years, we've had a hiring freeze for years...and we get heart palpitations every time Hillary's name is mentioned.
And never mind the fact that tens of millions of dollars are spent on research to develop the drugs that they want for cheap...or... that the money simply goes down the tube if the clinical trial doesn't pan out...or if they sue us when they lose vision instead of getting an erection.
Sorry to ramble...but SS will not be the only thing the upcoming generations will pay for and not receive.  If and/or when socialist medicine hits town, there will be no more great advances in medicine...not here in the US anyway.               

Having formerly worked for a pharmaceutical company I completely agree with what you said. We mostly specialized in generics and had to develop new technologies just to get around process patents already in place. earlier this year, the company cut 3/4 of the production staff (including me) and about 1/3 of the administrative and support staff. The reasoning was that the comapny was hemmorhaging money waiting on the FDA to approve 2 of our drug master files so that the drugs me were producing could be saleable. The FDA was dragging their feet and sent a letter to our comapny stating that they are expecting a backlog of at least another year, when they originally should have had the filing done in 6 mo time. We spent millions$$ on developing the new technologies only to be thwarted by the .gov. I can't even begin to imagine the cost to originally develop and approve the drugs that we made generic versions of.

[drewtam]

I have a couple of suggestions for you:

1) If you don't like it, start raising a fuss with all of your friends, and come up with a better solution, and then go sell it to your legislators (HINT: I believe the majority of young voters went democrat, so maybe you better work on your own age group before flaming your elders)

Check,
and even the democratic friends I have my age (20-24); they know SS is in BIG trouble. They either try to quietly change the subject or agree with me.

2) Don't trust someone else to fund your retirement - start saving EARLY and stop buying so much consumer trash, and stop running up needless credit debt, and you can retire in relative comfort wiithout counting on Social Security.

Check,
Good advise that I live by. But I just imagine how much money I could make if I could take those SS dollars and put against the mortgage or any other smart long term investing and it just makes so angry. And I don't mean the internet angry where you type in all caps and blow off steam. But it makes me the real, all worked up, for the rest of the day angry.

Now you've gotten me all spittin and hissin on a perfectly good Sunday afternoon, a day I would rather be focused on spiritual things.

Drew

[Lee]

I can't even begin to imagine the cost to originally develop and approve the drugs that we made generic versions of.

I don't work for Pfizer...but here is an example of the cost of doing business.
If they has succeeded, they would have had seventeen years to recoup the investment before a company like yours would be able to market it...probably much less time overseas.   

From Yahoo:

"The world's largest drugmaker said it was told Saturday that an independent board monitoring a study for torcetrapib, a drug that raises levels of HDL, or what's commonly known as good cholesterol, recommended that the work end because of "an imbalance of mortality and cardiovascular events."

The news is devastating to Pfizer, which had been counting on the drug to revitalize stagnant sales that have been hurt by numerous patent expirations on key products. It has said it was spending around $800 million to develop Torcetrapib."

[mountainclmbr]

A good article from Realclearpolitics.com today:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/01/baby_boomers_are_selfishly_sil.html