What about social security and medicare? This is a great unanswered question. The biggest voting pool is also going to be needing lots of medicare. This is gonna be an amazingly huge burden on the working generation. I for one do not want to pay for it. Costa Rica here I come.
Before I say anything I realize my initial comment could be seen as inflammatory. I'm going to try to respond in the most respectful manner.
I don't understand what you are trying to say lil. My parents are 10 years out from the retirement age if that answers your question. I'm 26 :-) How old are you?
I was under the impression that Costa Rica was actually a place that a lot of expats go for tax and living standard reasons. I'll have to look into this more specifically, but the point of my comment was to say I don't want to pay into a tax system that is going to benefit current retirees but not be there for me when I retire. Sounds like generational robbery to me.
I love Costa Rica, but from what I've been able to gather from my own research and from friends who live in Central America, it can be hard to make a good living in Costa Rica unless you get sent there in a role that pays well. I'd love to be wrong about that though. Any insight?
Haha. I've heard that Costa Rica is a popular place for expat retirees. I hope in a future world I can lower my tax and cost of living expenses and still maximize my productive capacity.
I'm a programmer located in New York City. I get paid well but the expenses here are high. It seems silly that I should have to go to a very dense place to log into a computer that's located in a server in another place anyways. That's my long term plan :-)
- I'm a programmer located in New York City. I get paid well but the expenses here are high.
I hear this from most of the people I know in New York. My aunt (who lives there) once told me, "you know, once you sort out your housing issue, New York is actually a very livable city" which is probably true, but I don't see myself having that million plus for a small apartment in Manhattan.
As for retiring someplace safe and warm, becoming an ex-pat is increasingly popular. When I taught English abroad, most of the long term teachers of a certain age were doing it to finance their retirement, or just to have a bit extra. Given the upcoming retirement bubble, I wonder how that trend will continue. There are a whole lot of countries investing in medical tourism that seem to service mostly older ex-pats, too.
- I for one do not want to pay for it. Costa Rica here I come.
I don't understand this point of view. would you rather them have a poor standard of living? Or be unable to afford their health care and have a highly reduced quality of life? Or die because they can't afford their medicine?
Not all of these people have family who are able (or willing) to pick up whatever slack might be there without the medicare system you don't want to pay for. By saying "Fuck you I've got mine", you're condemning these people, as well as setting a bad precedent for when you come to retirement age.
No. Of course not. I do not want any one to have a poor standard of living. That said, it's unfair to burden the working generation at a rate that holds them back significantly. Public policy is about compromising between different interests. Social Security and Medicare may not be able to support the coming retirees in its current form. Bankrupting social security or unfairly taxing the working generation should be seen as just as big as priority as ensuring the living standards of retirees.
We need to look at the situation currently and say how can we provide benefits to retirees with the resources that are going to be available at the time. As the replacement rate of the population slows down we have less productive workers providing the same benefits for a larger proportion of retirees. Changes will have to be made.
Had you posted this comment instead of your first one I think we would be entirely in agreement with one another.
It is unfair that the coming generations are going to be burdened with a level of support that the boomers never had to, and not only that, that the shockwaves of that support are going to echo out for generations. This is a problem that someone should have figured out in the 1990s, when we still had a chance to do something about it.