Bankrupting Ourselves

MY BIG SISTER DID EVERYTHING the right way. She was a perfect role model for me, only I didn't realize it until it was too late. She stayed out of trouble at school, made good grades, graduated, went to college. Majored in music, made good grades, graduated, joined the army, as a musician. Four military years later she transitioned to government work, in the civil service. She got started in this by the time she was tewnty five, and retired at fifty five. Meanwhile I changed majors in college a time or two, and ended up living an adult life characterized by low wage short term jobs with little or no job security. I'm still working, while she's traveling, relaxing, enjoying life. And both of us have earned everything we have, or don't have. Our mother is still alive, at ninety three. How long will my sister and I, a pair of baby boomers, live? Only the good lord knows. But if my sister lives as long as my mother, which is a distinct possibility, then she will spend the last fory years of her life drawing a very healthy retirement pension from the United States government, after working for thirty years. Forty years of pension payments, for one person, after a thirty year career? Excuse me? How many other people are in her situation? Well,we have a large military, a large government, and a large civil service. People in general are living longer. If we don't watch out, we're going to have someday in America a nation full of retired pensioners, waiting for their next paycheck in an eternal stream of paychecks, from...whom? Cities like Detroit, and states like California, cities and states all over the U.S.A. are having the same problem; how to pay all this money to all these federal, state, and city retired employees? Those sweetheart deals government gives hirees to attract them to government work are coming due; and we can't afford to pay them.