We all know that America’s socialized pension system is, barring major reforms, doomed to undergo major default. But Americans should be nervous about their private pension funds and accounts, too.
Over at PensionTsunami.com, the folks at California Public Policy Center have their ears to the ground, listening for rumblings of the next market collapses, a huge bubble bursting in multiple forms of pension systems. A link from that site led me to a Bloomberg article, about Ireland’s bizarro response to that country’s downturn.
And the ominous portent it presents.
You see, Ireland’s politicians are so convinced that they have to “do something,” something big, to jumpstart the economy out of its current depression, that they’ve decided to levy a tax against pensions — a special tax designed to raise 470 million euros a year for four years, to pay for a massive new jobs program.
Forget that government jobs programs rarely do much good. Forget that it’s not government investment which accounts for market progress, but private investment, and that people will invest when they feel secure enough about the future to do so.
Forget that robbing people of their savings for the future tends to make investors less secure, less likely to invest — and thus put the economy in a bigger, longer-run fix.
Remember, instead, that to a politician nothing is sacred, nothing is out of bounds for a tax or control.
And that this kind of dangerous public thievery could happen here.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “An Attack on Private Pensions”
It seems that now is the time for attacks on all workers and their pensions.
It’s alright for the fatcat CEO’s to get their golden parachutes but don’t let the workers have a pension. Let them work until they die.
Back when I was in my early twenties and started on my first real sustained job, I was offered an entry to the company’s pension system, but I opted out, because I thought I wouldn’t be with that company for more than three or four years, so I embarked on my own savings and investment plan. That was before IRA’s, but I started an IRA as soon as I could. I also started buying hard assets (bullion coins). All of these did fine for me, and the coins were bought anonymously, so the government is unlikely to try to steal them from me. I tend to advise others to go independent, too, and, very importantly, to get a CFP (Certified Financial Planner).
Whatever basket you put your nest eggs into might drop. Best to have more than one basket. And to expect a screw from the government.
I believe that I have been reading about the Obama administration’s planned takeover of IRA’s and 401K’s – all under the guise of better investments being in the government, then the government will become the beneficiary of those retirement accounts.