"Personal finance has come to substitute for the role government should play for people," observes Nan Mooney, author of (Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents [3]. "In the past 20 years the myth of the person succeeding on their own has gotten bigger and bigger. This myth is dangerous. It tells you if you can't balance everything and you are in debt, it is your fault."
So what I get from that is if I end up $20,000 in debt, it isn't my fault? I read this and was absolutely shocked. I couldn't believe what I was reading. It is absolutely crazy to me how much the climate in America has shifted. All of a sudden we have an economic downturn and personal responsibility is not possible and our financial system doesn't work? Financial guru's have never told us that the system is a get rich quick scheme. They've told us if you stay in it for the long run, you can retire with money. And this has been the case. The problem now are those that are close to retiring are now going to have to work longer, putting an even bigger strain on the system, creating job problems for a long time to come.
I recently read an article that was talking about how drastically the financial system has changed. It use to be that you'd work for a company for years and year, then retire with a 3 legged stool: pensions, social security, and personal savings. Those 3 were good enough to keep you afloat. Then came 401ks and the market system. Slowly people started adding this "third leg" to the system replacing savings. When companies saw the way the market was going, many did away with pensions and replaced them with 401ks. While 401ks are great, they were never really meant to be a primary source of retirement income because of the fluctuations in the market. Add the profitability of the market before the crash, and many bad funds were showing up and companies were offering them to employees. So not only did they take away a once essential leg of the financial system(pensions), but in the process they replaced it with a system that is set up with hidden fees and people trying to make a profit. Basically, a bad switch.
Sooo, where do we go from here? The job market isn't the same, workers aren't working for one company their whole life, so pensions aren't the answer. So what is? I'm not really sure. Social Security is failing... I doubt I get any of that money
. I think this is where we need the government. I know, I know, I've always said I don't want the government doing anything, but in this case, I could see it. The government could set up personal accounts with a guaranteed returns, then on top of it you could put money in a 401k and hope to have 2 good sources of retirement income. They could be very similar to pensions, just requiring a certain amount from the individual and an individualize return based off of what you put in. You get how much you put in, plus a return. Now, of course they would screw this up... when times were good, they would do what company pensions did and take the surplus of funds and apply them elsewhere. But, something needs to be done. With social security and 401ks at the primary retirement income source, things aren't working out... we are set up to fail.
One more political thing... This, and this, is why I hate politicians. O, and if you don't frequent that site, it is well worth it. Has really good information! Check it out! And what a cool gif:
Ok, moving on... I was on a website that tracks website traffic and decided to look up my blog. I did, and I found that this post of mine was linked to on a different site. I thought it was pretty cool, so I've decided to bring back the Men of the Bible series. I'll need to do some reading up, but it should be fun. :)
Until next time...
1 comments:
Like you, I cringe when I hear "my debt is not my fault." In the ashes of Ralph Nader's failed mission as consumers' advocate, there are increasingly more cases where it can be declared "it's not ALL my fault". A credit card of mine was set to pay on the 16th of every month out of my main checking account electronically. It takes (in the fine print up to) five days to process. This money was out of my account before 1AM on every 16th (in less than 1 hour). Conveniently, it took all five days to process my payment every time. My due date was the 19th, and the payment was credited on the 20th. I did not open statements, but I checked to ensure that my checking account was paying off. By the time I checked with the credit card company, my interest rate was 29.99%, I had been assessed $420 in late and over limit fees. Think they reversed any of that when we talked and I demonstrated that they actually owned my payment 3 days before the due date? No. Was it my fault? Hell, yes. Opening my statements would have made the problem much smaller. Would I be sympathetic to a person who fell in the same peril on on a bigger, more devistating scale? Again, yes. The CC companies are looking for ways to rape us legally in the shadows of fine print. Beware.
I hope you hold tight to your absolute view of personal responsibility, brother. That will always mean it has not happened to you.
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