Goldman Sachs CEO "Wants Americans to Work Longer"

[amborin]

Extremely Rich Wall Street CEO Wants Americans To Work Longer

By Pat Garofalo on Nov 20, 2012

Lloyd Blankfein — ..... CEO of Wall Street behemoth Goldman Sachs — told CBS News’ Scott Pelley that he believes the retirement age needs to be raised because “in general, entitlements have to be slowed down and contained“:

snip

PELLEY: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid?

BLANKFEIN: You can look at history of these things, and Social Security wasn’t devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career. … So there will be things that, you know, the retirement age has to be changed, maybe some of the benefits have to be affected, maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised. But in general, entitlements have to be slowed down and contained.

snip

BLANKFEIN: Because we can’t afford them.

Maybe working until a later age is fine for a Wall Street CEO whose net worth is $450 million. But it’s simply nonsense to assert that the retirement age needs to go up because Social Security is no longer affordable.

For starters, Social Security can pay full benefits for decades without any changes at all. (Imagine the accolades that would received if any other federal program had guaranteed funding for that stretch of time.) One simple change, raising the cap on the payroll tax, can guarantee that the program will pay nearly full benefits for three-quarters of a century. In the meantime, Social Security is statutorily barred from adding one dime to the federal deficit, so cutting it doesn’t change the nation’s deficit or debt picture.

snip

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/20/1220051/blankfein-retirement-age/

[Lindsay]

1. I am no math genius,

but even I can tell Blankfein's numbers don't add up.

Work for 25 years and retired for 30? So you start working at age 40 and live until you're 95?

Not in my world.

[Ganja Ninja]

2. I believe he should pay a 95% tax rate ...

so I can retire at 65. Seems only fair since we bailed his ass out with Social Security trust fund money.

[Ed Suspicious]

32. Right on!

[Scuba]

3. Hey, Blankefein, it's you we can't afford.

[KittyWampus]

9. This. In one simple sentence, you've hit the target dead on.

[Blue_Tires]

11. +1

[Wind Dancer]

18. +1000 n/t

[leftstreet]

21. +1

[deutsey]

4. I saw part of the interview...make me sick ot my stomach

Smug, self-satisfied asshole.

[OneGrassRoot]

5. "But in general, entitlements have to be slowed down and contained."

[font size="4"]The obscene salaries and bonuses and ridiculously lavish lifestyles of the 1% is what needs to be "slowed down and contained."[/font]

[HughBeaumont]

6. BankFiend is the Vice President of the Moat Widening Club.

How anyone cannot regard what the Kleptocracy does yearly as legalized theft is beyond me.

[Salviati]

16. Another useful graph for showing how we've been stolen from:

and why we have the highest levels in inequality since the gilded age.

It makes me pissed off just looking at it.



http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/events/spring08/feller/

[HughBeaumont]

19. Ha . . . look at when our wages leveled off, but OUR productivity skyrocketed . . .

NINETEEN EIGHTY ONE.

Overlap both graphs and it kind of puts the theft in greater perspective.

[byeya]

27. In the 40s, 50s and 60s, organized workplaces negotiated to capture part of the increase

in productivity. Uniions saw to it to ensure workers split part of their increased productivity, and the country was in pretty good shape.

Under the global or cosmopolitan system, virtually all gains in productivity go to the 1%.

[onyourleft]

7. At what...

...jobs?

[ljm2002]

8. Generally people start working by age 24...

...assuming they went to college first. Or they start by age 18 if they don't go to college.

Retirement age right now is 67.

67 - 24 == 43
67 - 18 == 49

So people's careers are more likely to be 43 to 49 years long, not 25 years long, before they cash in their Social Security.

Now as far as how long people live after age 67? Average life expectancy for men overall is 75.5 years, for women 80.5 years.

75.5 - 67 == 8.5
80.5 - 67 == 13.5

So on average, people have an 11-year retirement after a 46-year career.

Okay, so now we have to factor in that people do not necessarily contribute to SS for all 45 years, as they may not work for every one of those years. In particular, women often take time off to raise their families. But even so, it looks to me like they will still have 30 years or so of input, and an average 11 years of retirement.

Of course, Blankfein is good a sleight-of-hand when it comes to numbers. Otherwise he would not be where he is, atop a profession that is riddled with fraud.

[JHB]

14. Perhaps he means 25-year-career ***as a corporate executive***

And that applies to everyone, doesn't it? At least, everyone worth speaking of!




(damn. Any smilies with a top hat, monocle, and raised champaign flute?)

[WinkyDink]

10. "Goldman Sachs pay out $111million in bonuses despite taking billions in bailout money "

http://poorrichards-blog.blogspot.com/2010/12/goldman-sachs-pay-out-111million-in.html

[PD Turk]

12. "Wants" Americans to work longer

My daddy had an old saying he liked to use. "Want in one hand and shit in the other and see which gets full first"

I think it's high time we tell all these upper crust popinjays exactly that. Let's make it clear that nobody gives a damn about what they "want" anymore.

[Matariki]

13. They just want to get their greedy fucking hands on that money

Because Social Security has nothing to do with the national debt - except that it's been borrowed from.

There isn't a pile of money anywhere these grifters can resist.

[Initech]

15. They want us to work longer so they continue stealing our pensions.

Such a backwards world we live in when the banks rob us.

[hifiguy]

17. This fucker should be in a tumbrel

headed to the fking guillotine. Yesterday.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. I saw that imperious fucker on the teevee . . . . he makes Marie Antoinette look populous.

He's almost as disgusting an entitled prick as was Queen Ann.

He was sitting in a very throne like chair, his arm languidly but precisely draped just so. His body language was gag inducing.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

22. I wonder what his Number 1 DU Groupie thinks of this. nt

[Barack_America]

23. A day of physical labor.

Then get back to me.

My response is the same for every white-collared individual who makes this argument. Walk a mile before you speak.

[HiPointDem]

24. they own the plantation, we just work on it. who is lloyd blankfein & why does

he get to tell us what the standard retirement age will be?

oh, yeah, the banksters own everything.

[gollygee]

25. Are we supposed to be surprised about that?

For minimum wage even, but only if the neo-liberals don't manage to eliminate the minimum wage.

Work as much as possible for as little money as possible with no benefits. And they say WE are trying to redistribute wealth.

[Rex]

26. Did he inherit all that money?

Just curious.

[Marrah_G]

28. Easy to say for a jerk who has people there to wipe his ass for him

it's always these self entitled little office idiots who have never had a callous in their lives, never through out their back lifting heavy things that like to tell us all how we should be working until we are fucking dead.

Because that IS what will happen... more and more people in physically demanding jobs will have to work until they are dead.

[struggle4progress]

29. ... Blankfein earned a total of $54.4 million in 2006 ...

... Goldman ... executives refer to unsophisticated clients as "muppets" and use a strategy of "elephant hunting" to systematically take advantage of their own clients ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Blankfein

Assuming he worked 50 60-hour weeks that year, his compensation comes to about $9000/hr. He's another of those people who thinks he's entitled to everything, and nobody else is entitled to anything

[BeyondGeography]

30. Scott Pelley asking Lloyd Blankfein's opinion on Social Security

What could possibly go wrong?

[polichick]

31. Sure, while he plays golf and smokes cigars...

When, oh when, will American serfs rise up and take these scumbags down?!

[peacebird]

33. When I retire younger workers can be promoted up into my position. Also younger workers cost a bit l

less so it benefits the company and the next generation of workers to let me retire.