Actually, you can't pick an amount and talk about some mythical average
retired person, and state with assurance, what income that person requires
to live. People's situations change. People live in different areas of the
country and expenses vary from area to area. Right now, I am struggling with
how to plan for my living situation and care with the income I have and it's
certainly more than $19,000. But I live on Long Island which is an expensive
place to live. My physical capacities are diminishing at a disturbing rate.
I have very little eyesight left and although I know that all of you are
living competently with no vision at all, I have lived, making the most of a
small amount of vision for years and years. I have some skills with which to
compensate as vision goes. But adjusting at 78 is not like adjusting at 30
or even 50. And the quality of rehab services for the elderly blind is so
poor here, that there's no point in bothering. But it's not just vision.
It's other things like osteo arthritis and scoleosis which are increasingly
disabling me. And I won't even go into the other conditions. So I know that
I can't live alone in this apartment much longer without some kind of
assistance. I have to make choices because I do not have disability
insurance and my income won't cover the kind of help I'll need. At some
point, if I play the game, do all the unpleasant legal financial
manipulation, I can get community medicaid. That means having an underpaid,
overwhelmed stranger in my home to be of assistance to me who may or may not
have enough security and well being in her own life, to be concerned about
my well being. Someone with my physical issues who has a lot of money, can
employ people to care for her, can choose those people and pay them the full
amount that the home health agency is paid. Remember, if Medicaid pays the
agency $30 an hour, the home health aid is paid only $10 and she doesn't
have the usual fringe benefits of other workers because that was a bargain
made by FDR way back when. But if one has money, one can pay someone enough
so that she doesn't feel exploited and that will be reflected in the care
that she provides. Most assisted living settings here, a fancy name for
institution, charge more annually than my annual income. Most of them are
for profit corporations. But even the not for profit institutions charge a
lot and that is for basic care: a place to live and food. If you need
additional help, the fee goes up. So you can end up paying $7,000 or $8,000
a month in this area. Continuing care communities are better, especially
not for profit communities. But you pay an up front amount to get in,
usually the amount that you get when you sell your home, and then you pay a
fee each month. But you go in while you're still able to live independently
in an apartment and then as you deteriorate, you move to assisted living,
and then, finally, to skilled nursing. That was my initial plan, but it was
foiled. So, what happens to someone in my situation? Lots of compromise. Or
someone whose income is $19,000 annually and who can't afford all of the
medication he may need, the supplemental medical insurance, or the copays,
and wose money may not cover rent and food? Car maintenance? Gas?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2016 3:20 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Wall Street Journal Says $19,000 a Year Is
Adequate Middle-Class Retirement Income
Joe, your point is clear. Far more retired and disabled people are existing
at below $19,000 a year. What burns the hair in my nose is the idea that
some slick Know Nothing gets space in a national magazine to peddle manure.
First, I still refuse to call the broad Working Class, Middle Class. Middle
Class has always been a myth, and a means by which the Ruling Class divided
us and often turned us against one another. But the thing is this, there is
no fixed dollar amount that will provide all retired Working Class folks a
comfortable living.
Of course it may be implied in this Wall Street article, that we retired
folk ought to all go out and find a one bed room apartment in the Ghetto,
although some of those Slum Lords charge far too much for their dumps. How
dare some rich Bastard decide what the average retired Working Class
American can live on.
In my professional opinion, $40,000 comes closer to what retired Working
Class Americans should have in place as a solid income floor.
Then folks could actually spend some of it on stuff other than food and
shelter, and help our sagging economy.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/8/16, joe harcz Comcast <joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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
Share on Twitter Tweet
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-cri
sis-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-cri
sis-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