<p>And I agree with the writer. The young are going to win. Why should the young support a generation that could not pay its bills?</p>
<p>In the end, the young won’t.</p>
<p>[Generational</a> ‘fight of the century’ looms as taxpayers revolt - MarketWatch](<a href=“http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/generational-fight-century-looms-taxpayers/story.aspx?guid={52DEF8AE-E29F-4E35-829F-531289F138ED}]Generational”>10-round rumble - MarketWatch)</p>
<p>That would require that the “young”–who have parents, grandparents, and great grandparents–actually get out there and vote.</p>
<p>I think it much more likely that we end up with a shadow economy that includes a lot of bartering, so that people can avoid “on the record” income. People will start their own businesses so that they can hide their income.</p>
<p>I have ALREADY received more from social security than I paid in: the SSA supported my mother for twenty-three years after she retired.</p>
<p>When the old are in their seventies and the young are in their forties and the young see how much their taxes are going to their elders, that is when the problems are going to occur. I might be off by a decade. ;)</p>
<p>I plan to work until 75 if I can so I retain control over my financial destiny as much as I can. My mom was still working at 80.</p>
<p>I think our parents generation had the best scenarios. My pension has already been turned into a glorified IRA. The old timers at my job retire with 3/4 salary. Some of them retire with more than I make.</p>
<p>AARP is a very strong and influential lobby. And of course SS is the third rail of politics, just ask Dan Rostenkowski, may he RIP. If the young voters really want to do something about this they had better organize!</p>
<p>Of course the bigger question is how much longer will SS and Medicare be financially sustainable. And given our profligate fiscal policies how much longer will the entire US economy be able to continue before the inevidible collapse which will take down young and old alike.</p>
<p>We are older, tougher, smarter and have the $$$$. They won’t stand a chance. They are soft and not ready to be organized as they never have been part of large organizations and don’t even know where to even start.</p>
<p>It baffles me as to why the govt adds the money you put into my retirement (yes it’s pretax $$) back into my income for the FAFSA calculation.</p>
<p>On one hand, they tell us to save for our retirement, then they count every $$ of the money we actually save back in as income. Am I missing something here?</p>
<p>BTW, my retirement plan is the Federal Governments Thrift Savings Plan. I’m a FERS, not older employee plan (CRCS?)
I truly feel like Uncle Sam has their hand in my wallet.</p>
<p>Barrons, we may be smarter, stronger, tougher and richer now, but we won’t be when we are 75 and our kids are 45. There is going to be a role reversal.</p>
<p>It is a matter of numbers and focus. There will be more and more older Americans and the issues of social security and healthcare are the sole issues. Taxes are only one issue for the young and middle aged. They will need to deal with the energy crisis and who knows how many other big issues. The young will need to do what we have done - support the older generation through taxes.</p>
<p>You know the sticker price for expensive private schools, say 45,000/year. Well I have a MIL in a nursing home to the tune of 85k/year! That is right, that is the amount. My inlaws no longer have a dime, so who is paying that bill? The tax payer. What does she receive for that kind of money? Not much. She is kept clean, and gets 3 square meals a day (think institutional food, don’t think lobster or fillet mignon). She pretty much just sits around the rest of waking hours. She is not getting heroic medical treatment, or even any medical treatment or therapy for that 85k. Medical treatments are extra tax dollars. She is just getting basic custodial care. That is something to think about, IMO. Oh, and she has existed in a nursing home for 8 years, so the price might have increased in recent years. I don’t even know. Does custodial care need to cost well over $200/day? To be fair, I am editing this to say that there is a nurse that administers her medication, along within everyone else on the floor. Medication costs are not included. That is an extra cost paid the taxpayer, and is not included in the nursing home bill.</p>
<p>not ready to be organized as they never have been part of large organizations and don’t even know where to even start </p>
<p>Boy is that wrong .</p>
<p>using their computers in two days these kids can get 7,000 people to show up at one place . all at the same time … have a rock concert and disperse all in an hour the tools they have for organizing are very effective and only getting better.</p>
<p>TO the poster who called the young “soft” I would agree. But I would also agree that the networking these kids do online every day is scary, and yeah, they could probably get 70,000 people mobilized if they really had to in a hurry. They just don’t realize the potential of their tools.</p>
<p>Well, if we stop spending 1 1/2 trillion dollars on foreign misadventures, which my kids will be paying for, we might be able to sustain Social Security for a long time. Now Medicare, from what I understand, is a different story. We need to pay higher taxes if we want a decent life for all Americans. European countries do it with no regrets, but we tend to be very libertarian, Darwinian, ie: I got mine, screw you. A lot of this attitude is hidden by people calling for “personal responsibility” and “lower taxes for all, especially the wealthiest.” </p>
<p>We need to rethink everything, which our country will not do in my lifetime, which is why we give serious thought to buying a home in Canada for retirement.</p>
<p>People at 45 are barely keeping their heads above water between paying for college, cars for the kids etc etc. Most wealthy is concentrated in our generation and it won’t be going away until we give it to them. Most likely it will grow even larger.</p>
<p>Sueinphilly: As a current (24 year) civil servant myself who is also under FERS, I sure hope you don’t think that the TSP is your retirement plan! It is only 1/3rd of your retirement picture. Those of us under FERS need to be especially vigilant about our retirement and should also be socking away whatever other funds we can in other financial investment vehicles.</p>
<p>And I truly believe that the upcoming battle in this country won’t be young vs. old, but rather educated vs. uneducated.</p>
<p>We could stop buying stuff and being productive. The economy would collapse and your IRAs would go down the tubes.</p>
<p>And of course, this assumes that social security doesn’t go bankrupt within the next 10 years. When I retire, I certainly won’t be counting on any social security, and if you’re financially wise, you wouldn’t either.</p>
<p>No. It is going to be young vs old. The young are going to be middle-aged when the battle begins. The old are going to be us.</p>
<p>States have only 3% of their future medical costs covered.
States only have about 33% of their future pension needs covered.</p>
<p>We are talking over $1 trillion.
We are just talking about the states.</p>
<p>Future medicare costs are expected to exceed $55 trillion. We don’t have that covered. ;)</p>
<p>This is a possible future headline…
[News</a> of Future: US Medicare Costs Now 7.5% of GDP](<a href=“http://www.newsoffuture.com/us_medicare_costs_of_gdp_future_health.html]News”>http://www.newsoffuture.com/us_medicare_costs_of_gdp_future_health.html)</p>
<p>Tax rates are going to go up.
We are going to need more immigration.
We are going to need more technological advances. (This is going to happen).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If we old folk outnumber them and continue to vote in large numbers, why would anything change? Just because I’m retired won’t mean that I cease to be a citizen.</p>
<p>We are not going to outnumber them.
The young are going to be in their forties. They are going to vote too.</p>
<p>We can make 300 phone calls inside of three and a half seconds. We can send 400 text messages with the press of a button. We can send 4000 emails with the press of a button. Whoever thinks that we’re not a force to be reckoned with is out of their minds.</p>
<p>Whoever thinks that we can’t get organized, I suggest they take a look at facebook.</p>