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Off The Publisher’s Desk – 8-13-2014

IS MY WORKING PAST RETIREMENT KEEPING A YOUNGER PERSON FROM A JOB?

I am still working; I passed the retirement age some time ago. Am I keeping some younger person from having a job? If I am, I am not the only one that, should have retired, and has not.

In a written piece by Robert Romano, the senior editor of the Americans for Limited Government, has taken figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which indicated that since July of 2000, the population of those aged 20-34 has increased by over seven million, yet only 1.3 million of those have found jobs.

 “Older Americans are living longer, and working longer than ever. And, as a result, there appears to be fewer jobs available in the labor force,” concluded Romano.

If these employment-population figures had remained what they were in 2000, 4.4 million younger Americans would have found jobs, and 5.7 million older Americans would have retired. But they didn’t.

Baby Boomers are retiring, just not fast enough to create room for those entering the work force. Or at least, the economy is not growing fast enough to accommodate older Americans working longer and the entry of those younger who are supposed to be in their prime working years yet cannot find a job.

A Baby Boomer is someone that was born just after World War II, generally considered from the mid-1940s to the early-1960s.

Why are we working longer? A great part is that we can because we are living longer. But another reason is that can we afford to retire? One of the reasons is we have too much debt. Since 1975, household debt to household income ratio has increased from 88 percent to 235 percent in 2007 but dropped to 207 percent in 2012. That means that in 1975 for every buck your household earned, there was a debt of 88 cents. But now for that one dollar, there is a debt of $2.07.

To make things worse, according to the National Institute on Retirement Security, a third of workers aged 55 to 64 have no retirement savings. That is not good and it represents eight million people.

Prior to 1971, credit outstanding grew at 6.25 percent a year. But, when Richard Nixon took the U. S. off of the gold standard, leaving the Federal Reserve in command of a flat currency, that all changed. Afterward, it grew 8.81 percent.

According to Romano, “by severing the dollar from a unit of value, such as gold, the ability to expand the unprecedented credit bubble that followed became possible. Household debt skyrocketed to pay for the burgeoning housing boom that nearly wrecked the global economy in 2007 and 2008 when it went bust.”

He continued, “and, in the process, it wiped out the savings of Boomers, who now cannot afford to retire, and whose children now cannot find work. We may be living with this folly for generations to come.”

In another matter, I would like to make a predication. Before the November election, Harry Reid will make an assault on the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. If he is successful, I will not be able to write negative things about the President or any other politician. That may be all right with some of my readers, but it will also stop you as citizens from criticizing those same politicians. That’s a scary thought!

Thanks for reading! — Carlton