Pick one: your pension or your kid's education

It's not just auto worker pensions that are in jeopardy, teacher, faculty and public sector retirement funds are in just as bad a shape.

Soon the baby boomers will be suing school boards and cities to get their retirement funds.
Nevermind that many of them are retiring at age 55 with 20 good years of work still available to society. Nevermind that these lawsuits will mean huge cuts in your grandkid's education. It's the boomers versus their grandkids. May the best generation win.

But don't worry about your 20something-30something son or daughter. They won't stay around to pay the boomer bill, and they won't stay around to see their kids get a lousy education. They will jet off to Amsterdam to live (their employers will be all over the world). They got good schools there. What do you think about this issue? Comments win a prize.

Comments

[Gerry]

At some point reality has to sink in. Freedom 55 isn't really freedom for anybody.

[Twyla]

We're getting a peek into a new trickle-down theory; who ever gets to the limited funds first gets the money and what's left trickles down to the rest. I'm a baby boomer who hasn't been in the education field very long and have mandatory TRS contributions taken out of my modest salary. My long term strategy is self-employment with retirement only when I am unable to work or have amassed the funds of my own to retire on. While I can't blame folks for wanting their funds after years of contributions, we baby-boomers continue to set an example to younger generations that it's all about "me".

Society demands that public education serve each demographic slice of the community and that no one gets their feelings hurt or their self-esteem injured. Now our education system won't teach our children the basic skills because we have to appease everyone's self image while dealing with administrative distractions such as violence, drugs, PC, and all those "ADHD" boys.

I just hope the Gen Y's value education enough to send their children and grand children to better educational systems. The public education system may need to be eliminated for a while until a new generation designs a system which truly educates while being responsive to diverse needs. Meanwhile the relics of the current system will remain in place until all the lawsuits are paid off!

[Mary Green]

I'm a Boomer, 1957, and I intend to use my skills in some capacity until I'm in the grave...and I expect to be paid for those skills! However, I will not work for someone else and all the time and energy I choose to put into my work will be designed to benefit me and my family. I expect I'll "retire" from some form of organization and I also expect to reap the financial rewards of the time and energy I spent contributing to the "system." Would I sue to assure I receive those rewards? Hmmmm, probably not since I believe we're too litigious as a society now.
Regarding quality of education: The public education system is so broken that the only thing that will fix it is a revolution! Our community college places 82% of new students in some form of development study (reading, writing, math, study skills). How can an 18 year-old walk into an institution of higher education, with a diploma from a public school in hand, and not be able able to read at the 7th grade level, craft a legible sentence, or do basic math? I'm appalled and I'm working now so that I will have the flexibility in my schedule to home-school my grandchildren when they reach school age.

[Robin]

Well, I am thinking about early retirement, but I plan to start a business and just have the minimal amount I am eligible for from my state job to cover a little of the basic expenses as I get up and running in the business. I also have annuities to help later when I am eligible, so I am not sanguine about getting any Social Security, and not terribly sanguine about my pension for long. So I don't know that we'll be a burden all that long on those coming along after us, because the State will likely cut our pensions somehow anyway....

[Rich]

Some boomers are going to sue to ensure that they get every penny of the pension they're "due." Other boomers are going to sue to reduce or eliminate the taxes they are paying to support a school system that they don't have kids or grandkids attending. Either way, the school system as we now know it is going to face serious funding problems that make their current funding problems seem minor. The real question is how much longer we'll continue to fund a system that's not meeting the needs of today's students and society? And, how much longer we're will to accept the poor results that funding the current system is producing?

[Tom Keefe]

I'm a "trailing-edge" Baby Boomer (born in 1958). People older than me enjoyed the privileges of being a Baby Boomer and wore out our welcome long before I could join the party. They also will be the ones who suck retirement funds dry long before I qualify.

Fortunately for my sanity, I've learned that my older Boomers would be doing themselves and society a disservice by retiring early. I intend to keep my mind sharp and income flowing by working in some capacity or other for as long as I can.

I believe in life-long learning AND life-long earning--both of which benefit society when I share the fruits of my efforts with others.

[Suzanne]

Although you are a member of Gen Y and not Gen X, I thought I'd pass along this anticdote. You know, they say Gen Xers are more likely to believe in UFOs than that social security will be there for them :)

Also, Bill brings up a good point about the "20 years of work left in them." Although I'm hoping to cash in on the Baby boomer exodus from the workforce, should people who will probably live to 100 retire in their 50s? Really, how much golf can you play? I think that the Nine Shift will bring meaning back to people's work. Instead of sitting at your office for the alotted time, whether or not you have anything to do (like me, right now), you can focus on work that's meaningful to you and then use the rest of your time as you wish.

My dad, an elementary school teacher, retired in his late 50s. Now in his mid 60s, he's back in the classroom again. He's teaching "seniors" now. He also seems a lot happier.

[Diederick]

I'm 24, and already saving for my retirement.
Unlike previous generations, I realise that when governments don't have the money to pay, they simply won't. Even if they promised to do so.