A Summer of Discontent For the Nation’s Finances
Judging from the way stocks have been moving up and down, and faced with a cautious if not confused market in the months ahead, there are plenty of reasons for concern. Most broad-based investment portfolios had a good first quarter run and gave back these gains by the end of the second quarter — the first down quarter in 15 months. After seven months, the market is up fractionally. So who’s taking the biggest hit?
This turbulence is particularly unsettling for New Seniors for several reasons. Those 65+ depend on their retirement plans to complement and supplement Social Security benefits. Negative growth means the principal is shrinking, because whatever flat sum is needed each month for living expenses is greater than the return on investment. So many of us are worried about running out of money before we run out of life. Not a comforting feeling for those who worked all our lives to have a retirement nest egg.
Many of us have a beef because government workers, whose retirement plans are protected from the same volatility, don’t share the uncertainties private sector retirees must endure. Public employees once made less money in exchange for job security and better benefit packages, including retirement plans. The tide has turned; now this sector makes more in raw salaries than comparable jobs in private business. With states and municipalities in financial trouble, taxpayers must pay the bill for underperforming public employee pension plans. Why? Because it’s in their contracts.
When the economy was good, these deals were negotiated by the unions representing various groups of government workers. At best, everyone thought the market would continue to grow and this clause would not be a problem. The worst case was that elected and appointed officials responsible for putting this plans together, mortgaged our tomorrows so they could look good at the time. Even if you live in a city or state where these outlandish concessions were not made, the federal government will be called upon to bail out those struggling, which means greater deficits, higher taxes or both.
Concurrently, manufacturing is sputtering and retail as well as home sales are off. The good news is people have started to save more, but this does not help an economy that is dependent on consumption to grow and prosper. Jobs won’t be created, other than for government employment, until individuals have confidence enough to start buying. Then businesses will start hiring. And taxes will start coming into the various governments. Taxes don’t need to be raised when people are working and businesses are growing; because this, in turn, generates more tax dollars.
Many politicians don’t want to hear this, because they tend to measure their job performance by how many bills are passed and the size of the budgets attached to the legislation. That’s why it’s important to elect people this November who understand that the spending spree must end and sound fiscal as well as social responsibility must prevail. Otherwise, New Seniors and those following us in the years to come will be faced with many summers of discontent.