Source: The Economist.
Citizens all over the world now spend about twice as many years in retirement as they did a generation ago. This is all well and good, except on the whole they have failed to save enough to support themselves in retirement and expect government to provide them with income and healthcare. See my previous posts on Social Security and Debtor Nations. Is anyone surprised world governments are facing serious fiscal problems? Or that in the US politicians are proposing even more entitlement programs to fix the fiscal mess the current set of entitlement programs have caused? Wasn't Einstein's definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?
Interesting post. I plan on sharing it with my macroeconomics class this week. We just discussed why GDP needs some interpretation in terms of economic well-being. We discussed the short youtube clip on Stiglitz (one of my favorite economists) talking about GDP (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUaJMNtW6GA). This fits well because it shows Americans not experiencing as many years in retirement as other countries.
ReplyDeleteHi Robert,
ReplyDeleteWhere do you teach? U of M, Howard CC, UMBC?
Jim
In the late 1970s I taught undergraduate econ courses at U. of Md./College Park as a PhD candidate, for a year and a half. I never did complete a dissertation because I was anxious to get in the investment field. For the next 20 years I was an investment manager for pension funds, endowments etc. but a little voice in the back of my head kept whispering to me how much I loved teaching.
ReplyDeleteIn 2000 I returned as an adjunct to teach at Howard Community College in Columbia. Now I teach maco, micro, and on-line money & banking.
Not having a PhD precludes me today, at least I've been told, from teaching at a 4 year school - like Towson for example - because they have plenty of PhDs apply for every opening.
The education field doesn't give much credence to experience. Students, however, love "real world" examples.
Robert,
ReplyDeleteI've had PhD's work for me off and on. While there's something to be said for the ability to look at problems from 50 different angles and to analyze in excruciating detail, the business world has a bias for immediate action, even if the solution is imperfect. In my own studies at UVa's Business School and later working on an MS in Comp Sci, my favorite professors were the ones who could bring some real world experience to the classroom. But it was always shocking to me how many went straight from grad school to teaching without getting any outside experience in their field. I may be simple-minded, but how can you teach effectively if you haven't done anything in your field outside of academia?
Jim
The really sad part to me is how it extends to the public school system. I've worked with physicists and astronomers from Johns Hopkins who have lectured the world's leading scientists and yet cannot go into our public school system to teach when they retire. Some of these men and women would gladly teach for half of what teachers are now paid just for the joy of teaching and to have something to do. And they tell the best stories!
ReplyDeleteBut the unions tell them they have to take classes in how to teach and be observed by some 28 year old before they can go into the class room.
In the mean time our municipalities are going broke!
I live on a poverty-level income. How much do you realistically expect me to save?
ReplyDelete