[blind-democracy] Re: Wall Street Journal Says $19,000 a Year Is Adequate Middle-Class Retirement Income

  • From: "joe harcz Comcast" <joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2016 12:14:52 -0500

On the other hand, and not being snarky, I mean it here many of us currently live on much less. Again not being snarky here but simply pointing out the facts And yes I think that $19,000 per year is far too low. I really do, but would love personally to have that much per annum.

It would be a marked increased in my personal standard of living let alone hundreds of others I know who make less than that.

I hope all catch my point here.

Shit I know of many and know personally many who don't make that much per year while working. Thus the high poverty rate in this county (Genesse County, Michigan).

BTW I work full time in a variety of capacities. I just don't get paid one thin dime for my work which includes full time advocacy, legal work and parental care giving.

But, the state sure finds ways to extract its pound of flesh from me with its retaliatory treatment of me and others relative to my whistleblowing and my bogus arrest for exercising or trying to exercise my First Amendment rights and my rights under the ADA/504.

Again I turned down "disorderly conduct" for the September 17 ADA "Celebration" fiasco here in Michigan on our State Capitol grounds. I'm not guilty of that either. But the State of Michigan is guilty of violations of all PWD civil rights and, in fact Snyder is guilty of creating more PWD with his exposure of thousands to lead poisoning in Flint.

Bottom line is the wrong people are often charged with crimes and/or are in jail/prison.

Sorry for the ramble here, but I've already spent a few thousand dollars in direct payments or in costs to fight, on principle, charges that should have never been made in the first place.

And in fact I'm not the criminal here but, rather, in documented fashion, state actors here are so.

And, once again I agree that $19,000 per annum isn't enough to live appropriately with.

It sure isn't enough for the people in nearby Flint Michigan to personally remediate the plumbing to their homes or other abodes for the dasterdly and infamous man-made disaster to its whater system. That is for sure.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl Jarvis" <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 08, 2016 11:50 AM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Wall Street Journal Says $19,000 a Year Is Adequate Middle-Class Retirement Income


Andrew Biggs should be the poster boy for the 1%.
Biggs demonstrates total ignorance, and total contempt regarding the
Real World faced by middle and working class retirees.  We could send
Biggs long lists of reasons why $19,000 a year is not a comfortable
income, but he really doesn't care what we think.  His wagon is
hitched to the 1% Corporate folks, who would starve to death on
$19,000 a year.

Carl Jarvis

On 1/7/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Wall Street Journal Says $19,000 a Year Is Adequate Middle-Class
Retirement Income
________________________________________
Wall Street Journal Says $19,000 a Year Is Adequate Middle-Class Retirement
Income
By Dean Baker [1] / Beat the Press
January 6, 2016
While economic debates can often get into complex questions of theory or
statistical methods, many hang on more simple issues, like the right
adjective. We got a great example of one such debate in a Wall Street
journal column [2] by Andrew Biggs, an economist at the American Enterprise
Institute and former Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security
Administration under President George W. Bush.
Biggs looks at some recent evidence, most notably a new study from the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and dismisses the idea that there is a
retirement crisis. At the center of this assertion is the CBO projection
that a typical household in the middle quintile, born in 1960, can expect
to
get $19,000 a year from Social Security. Biggs sees this $19,000 as
replacing 56 percent of pre-retirement income and says this is not far from
the 70-80 percent usually viewed as adequate. He then touts data on total
retirement savings and pronounces everything as okay.
If we step back from replacement rates, we can ask a rhetorical question,
is
$19,000 a year a middle class income? Odds are that most people would not
consider $19,000 a reasonable income for a middle class household, hence
the
basis for the claim about a retirement crisis. Biggs does point to the
record amount of retirement savings. This is indeed good news for those who
have these savings, but unfortunately most middle class households don't
fall into this category.
According to the Federal Reserve Board's 2013 Survey of Consumer Finance
[3], the average net worth outside of housing equity for the middle
quintile
of households between the ages of 55 and 64 was less than $55,000. This
includes all IRAs, 401(k)s and other retirement accounts. This will
translate into roughly $3,000 a year in additional retirement income,
bringing this middle income household's income up to $22,000 a year.
Biggs looks at this and says everything is just fine and we should be
looking to cut Social Security. Those raising concerns about a retirement
crisis do not see $22,000 a year as a middle class income. We are just
arguing about adjectives here, there is not much disagreement on the
situation.

Dean Baker [4] is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy
Research [5] (CEPR). His most recent book is Plunder and Blunder: The Rise
and Fall of the Bubble Economy [6]. He also has a blog, Beat the Press [7].
        Share on Facebook Share
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Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [8]
        [9]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/economy/wall-street-journal-says-19000-year-adequate
-middle-class-retirement-income
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/dean-baker-0
[2]
http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-evidence-on-the-phony-retirement-crisis-1451
952646
[3] http://cepr.net/documents/wealth-scf-2014-10.pdf
[4] mailto:cepr@xxxxxxxx
[5] http://www.cepr.net/
[6] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0981576990?tag=commondreams-20/ref=nosim
[7] http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/
[8] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Wall Street Journal
Says
$19,000 a Year Is Adequate Middle-Class Retirement Income
[9] http://www.alternet.org/
[10] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B

Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Wall Street Journal Says $19,000 a Year Is Adequate Middle-Class
Retirement Income

Wall Street Journal Says $19,000 a Year Is Adequate Middle-Class Retirement
Income
By Dean Baker [1] / Beat the Press
January 6, 2016
While economic debates can often get into complex questions of theory or
statistical methods, many hang on more simple issues, like the right
adjective. We got a great example of one such debate in a Wall Street
journal column [2] by Andrew Biggs, an economist at the American Enterprise
Institute and former Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security
Administration under President George W. Bush.
Biggs looks at some recent evidence, most notably a new study from the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and dismisses the idea that there is a
retirement crisis. At the center of this assertion is the CBO projection
that a typical household in the middle quintile, born in 1960, can expect
to
get $19,000 a year from Social Security. Biggs sees this $19,000 as
replacing 56 percent of pre-retirement income and says this is not far from
the 70-80 percent usually viewed as adequate. He then touts data on total
retirement savings and pronounces everything as okay.
If we step back from replacement rates, we can ask a rhetorical question,
is
$19,000 a year a middle class income? Odds are that most people would not
consider $19,000 a reasonable income for a middle class household, hence
the
basis for the claim about a retirement crisis. Biggs does point to the
record amount of retirement savings. This is indeed good news for those who
have these savings, but unfortunately most middle class households don't
fall into this category.
According to the Federal Reserve Board's 2013 Survey of Consumer Finance
[3], the average net worth outside of housing equity for the middle
quintile
of households between the ages of 55 and 64 was less than $55,000. This
includes all IRAs, 401(k)s and other retirement accounts. This will
translate into roughly $3,000 a year in additional retirement income,
bringing this middle income household's income up to $22,000 a year.
Biggs looks at this and says everything is just fine and we should be
looking to cut Social Security. Those raising concerns about a retirement
crisis do not see $22,000 a year as a middle class income. We are just
arguing about adjectives here, there is not much disagreement on the
situation.
Dean Baker [4] is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy
Research [5] (CEPR). His most recent book is Plunder and Blunder: The Rise
and Fall of the Bubble Economy [6]. He also has a blog, Beat the Press [7].
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [8]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[9]

Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/economy/wall-street-journal-says-19000-year-adequate
-middle-class-retirement-income
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/dean-baker-0
[2]
http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-evidence-on-the-phony-retirement-crisis-1451
952646
[3] http://cepr.net/documents/wealth-scf-2014-10.pdf
[4] mailto:cepr@xxxxxxxx
[5] http://www.cepr.net/
[6] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0981576990?tag=commondreams-20/ref=nosim
[7] http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/
[8] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Wall Street Journal
Says
$19,000 a Year Is Adequate Middle-Class Retirement Income
[9] http://www.alternet.org/
[10] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B






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