Story in the news from Up North:
Retirement savings may go to support the poor
Minister of Finance says many not putting away enough money
By Deborah Tetley, Canwest News Service April 14, 2010
Canadians who prepared for their retirement are going to be responsible for taking care of a “sizable” part of the population that didn’t prepare sufficiently, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty warned Monday.
[snip]
“(We need) to avoid a situation where we’re going to have a sizable part of the Canadian population reaching retirement age without adequate provisions for their retirement income,” Flaherty told reporters on the first day of the retirement-income conference. “That will mean that the rest of the population will be called upon to help those that have not saved for their retirement.”
[snip]
“We have a significant percentage of working Canadians, many in their 30s and 40s, who are not saving adequately for retirement.”
Two things spring immediately to mind: Aesop’s fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper, and Marx’s formula “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” The Finance Minister of this major Western nation is actually proposing that the ants be forced to feed the grasshoppers. A little more reflection brings up not a fable, but a fact: incentives matter. Suppose word gets around the populace that you’ll be supported if you haven’t saved sufficiently for your retirement; how will people respond to this NEW INCENTIVE? I know how I myself would: I’d simply quit worrying about my retirement! RRSPs, 401ks, mutual funds, bonds, all that stuff is confusing and boring anyway and it would be a huge relief to chuck the lot, knowing that the magic of wealth redistribution — a favorite Obama phrase in his formative years by the way – was going to sprinkle financial fairy dust over me during my declining years.
You can be sure this news item made some American socialist eyes bug out with keen interest. If Democrats can pass leftist health-care legislation over the objections of all the free-market and economic-libertarian instincts that still exist (but are slowly weakening with time) in the United States, then this scheme to turn retirees, or people deemed “sufficiently prepared” for retirement, into social debtors whose resources may then be garnisheed, should be feasible as well.
It will certainly be another epic political battle, when future Democrats try to introduce this nifty Canadian scheme. But recent political trends in the US, plus the knowledge that the Republican party is slowly but steadily shrinking due to the demographic decline of its primary voter base (white males), suggest that the AAIPP (American Association of Insufficiently Prepared Persons) will be the final victor.
I have no gift for political sloganeering, like the person who came up with the great words which the French government used to plug the introduction of the 35-day work week many years ago: “Du temps pour vivre [time for living]!” But whatever catchy phrases will be used to advertise this prepared-support-the-unprepared retirement scheme – oh all right I’ll take a stab:
“Government gold for your golden years!”
“Senior citizen, senior entitlements!”
“Once upon a time in the Bad Old Days, there was a mean old man named Retirement Planning.”
“Obama’s Magic Retirement Carpet: Room For All!”
Bah. As I was saying, behind any and all clever slogans will be the true essence: “If you don’t feel like saving for your retirement, don’t bother; the government will take money from rich bastards and give it to you.” You don’t even have to worry your pretty little head about who the ‘rich bastards’ are; they are simply anyone who has more than just enough to retire on, and the relevant government officials, who never ever make mistakes, will determine who those people are. (Government workers will naturally be exempt from paying into retirement-for-others schemes, not so baldly of course, but that will be the net effect after a hugely complex and opaque series of regulated procedures, the creation and administration of which will create endless numbers of new government jobs, surprise surprise. Not to mention the vast additional department that will have to be created and staffed to apply the scheme to America’s second-class citizens, that is, all those persons of questionable social status who are not members of the civil service. The government-job-creating incentives make the mind reel.).
“Canadians who prepared for their retirement are going to be responsible for taking care of a “sizable” part of the population that didn’t prepare sufficiently, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty warned Monday.”
Flaherty is full of it – anyone who didn’t/isn’t preparing for their retirement is either stupid or a jerk – if he even THINKS we are going to be responsible for those who didn’t – he is absolutely crazy. We are NOT.
Jeanne,
If the government decides it’s a good idea and passes some sort of legislation, what will you do to resist?
And I think there are many, many people currently being supported by government (that is, by our taxes) who would qualify as stupid, lazy jerks. Yet the laws to support them with our tax dollars were passed in the teeth of the most determined opposition, once upon a time, and we all take those laws for granted now, don’t we?
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