Another FIRE Economist blog entry

[seabourne]

Retirement: Retire at 55 | The Economist

 

[REWahoo]

Since the OP didn't elaborate on the linked article, here is a pertinent quote:

Somehow it became the norm to spend up to a third of your life on holiday. This was never a good idea or particularly realistic. It puts a huge burden on the government, robs the labour force of still-productive and valuable workers, and it may even increase unemployment for younger workers.

I think you FIRE wannabees need to take heed and keep working. This guy says it's better for all of us if you do.

 

[Khan]

Since the OP didn't elaborate on the linked article, here is a pertinent quote:

I think you FIRE wannabees need to take heed and keep working. This guy says it's better for all of us if you do.

My response would be deleted.

 

[FIREd]

Since the OP didn't elaborate on the linked article, here is a pertinent quote:

I think you FIRE wannabees need to take heed and keep working. This guy says it's better for all of us if you do.

I will learn to live with my shame...

 

[travelover]

Too bad I didn't read this before MegaCorp hustled my a$$ out the door.

 

[haha]

People who want to gut SS and Medicare often cite how much greater our modern life expectancy is. But this is a distorted application of the data. Say you retire at age 66 (SS age)- it does not matter how many of your age cohort died in childhood, young adulthood or indeed any time up to age 66. What counts is how much longer age 66 people can be expected to live compared to generations going back to those who were young adults during WW2 or so.

While any additional years beyond age 66 are nice to have, they are very small in comparison with things like earlier retirement ages in public employment, various forms of pension padding, etc. My former wife as a teenager and young woman lived many years in Italy. She said that a small but signifcant number of public workers rarely even showed up on the job, likely by virtue of easy disablity qualifications. I think this type of work pattern, though perhaps no longer so flagrant, is sometimes seen in Southern Europe. Not exactly unknown here either.

IMO, the only way this stuff gets stopped once it really gets going is a miltary takeover. Then there will still be a class than takes care to feather its nest, but that class will be smaller.

It would not surprise me to see political unrest in any of those Southern countries. We tend to think that the status quo is somehow natural, but if things don't get fixed pretty fast, and without ruffling too many groups, anything can happen. It's not like these places are 200 year old democracies. I don't even think representative government in any real sense is necessarily written in stone even in a 200 year democracy.

Ha

 

[Nords]

Somehow it became the norm to spend up to a third of your life on holiday. This was never a good idea or particularly realistic. It puts a huge burden on the government, robs the labour force of still-productive and valuable workers, and it may even increase unemployment for younger workers.

Well I, for one, welcome our new economic overlords and totally agree with this sentiment.

I don't know how anyone could stand to spend only up to a third of their lives on holiday. I only have 24 years of W-2 wages on my record, and I'm doing my best to spend up to three-quarters of my life on holiday. Heck, technically I've already passed the halfway point, so the economy and the government should be thanking me shortly for relieving them of their burdens...