What Do They Know

The Business Roundtable recently endorsed the idea that the retirement age should be raised from 65 to 70.  They claim that people are living longer and the cost of what they call early retirement are no longer affordable.  While what they say may be true for the members of the Business Roundtable, keep in mind that these members are CEOs and executives of some of the largest companies in the country.  While it is partially true that life expectancy is increasing, the majority of those enjoying that increase are the wealthiest Americans which would include those who are members of the Business Roundtable.  If fact, the average working adult has seen their life expectancy increase by less than 2 years over the past 50 years but in comparison the life expectancy of the wealthiest 10% of Americans has increased by over 6 years.  The Business Roundtable also advocated changes to Medicare and supports the Ryan voucher system.  Again one needs to look at the reality that most members of that organization will never need a program like Medicare since they all have employment contracts that provide them with “Cadillac” healthcare through their retirement years.  The same can be said for their argument for making changes in Social Security benefits.  This group among all Americans is least likely to rely on Social security in their retirement years.  This group of Americans, as a result of their extraordinary earnings while employed, combined with pension plans beyond belief have no need for a program like Social Security.  Also keep in mind that one way the members of the Business Roundtable have justified their huge income is by changing the way their companies provide for employment retirement by discontinuing defined benefit plans (except for themselves) to 401K plans that require employee contributions (again, except for their situation).  These are the people who are the first to receive “golden parachutes” or exceptional severance packages when they are terminated unlike their employees who are sent packing with littler or nothing. What’s more, unlike the people who work for them and made their station in life possible who have 100% of their salaries subject to payroll taxes, the members of the Business Roundtable, in many cases, have less than 10% of their salary subjected to FICA.  The time to listen to the Business Roundtable for advice on what is best for America is when the members are treated like everyone else.  Perhaps, when the average CEO was paid 40 time the pay of the average employee their advice made sense.  Today, however, that Business Roundtable members is paid over 400 times their average employee and they have absolutely no idea what the average recipient of either Social Security or Medicare needs for a reasonably comfortable future.  The only thing that is consistent with advise from members of the Business Roundtable is that anything they perceive as costing them additional tax or other expense will be declared a “job killer” and “bad for the country”.  The most interesting aspect of the discussions surrounding what politicians and the elite like to call entitlements is the reality that those least in need of the benefits of entitlements are, first, the very group of people who find that they pay the lowest percentage of their income towards funding those programs; and second, happen to be the group of people who will ever actually have a need for the benefits these programs provide since they have the ability and means to pay these expense without entitlements.  The voice of the Business Roundtable is the voice of personal greed and nothing more.  It is time to call a spade a spade.