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The United States is bankrupt, flat broke. Thanks to accounting that would make Enron blush, America's insolvency goes far beyond what our leaders are disclosing. The United States is a fiscal basket case, in worse shape than the notoriously bailed-out countries of Greece, Ireland, and others. How did this happen? In The Clash of Generations, experts Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns document our six-decade, off-balance-sheet, unsustainable financing scheme. They explain how we have balanced our longer lives on the backs of our (relatively few)children. At the same time, we've been on a consumption spree, saving and investing less than nothing. And that's not to mention the evisceration of the middle class and a financial system that has proven it can't be trusted. Kotlikoff and Burns outline grassroots strategies for saving ourselves—and especially our children—from what could be a truly catastrophic financial collapse.
Kotlikoff and Burns sounded the alarm in their widely acclaimed The Coming Generational Storm, but politicians didn't listen. Now the need for action is even more urgent. It's up to us to demand radical reform of our tax system, our healthcare system, and our Social Security system, and to insist on better paths to investment return than those provided by Wall Street (mis)managers. Kotlikoff and Burns's "Purple Plans" (so called because they will appeal to both Republicans and Democrats) have been endorsed by a who's who of economists and offer a new way forward; and their revolutionary investment strategy for individuals replaces the idea of financial capital with "life decision capital." Of course, we won't be doing all this just for ourselves. We need to fix America's fiscal mess before our kids inherit it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMKw76lBn0k&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue xi
1 The United States Is Bankrupt 1
2 Catastrophic Success 9
3 Living beyond Our Children's Means 23
4 Economic Fallout 45
5 Beatings without Bruises 69
6 Does It Pay to Grow Up? 81
7 The War on Our Children 99
8 Unsafe at Any Speed 109
9 Getting to Yes 123
10 There Must Be Some Way Out of Here 139
11 Time to Retire 153
12 Becoming Our Own Solution 167
13 The Power of Ordinary Living 201
14 The Coming Generational Storm 229
Notes 235
Index 253
ken77
Posted May 25, 2012
Even though I have not finished this book I rated it very high because of all the research and details the authors went to in showing how all this
problem came about and I am looking forward to their solutions to the
problem we and and the younger generation are facing. Our kids need to
be taught from this book because informed minds are our only way out of
this financial predicament we are in. Austerity is not a bad word. If we all practiced it a little more and stop the "instant gratification"
behavior the USA would be a much stronger country.
JWalts
Posted May 23, 2012
This book should be required reading for everyone, especially senior citizens and members of Congress. The only qualifier I would add is that the statistics, while instructive, tend to overwhelm the middle few chapters. Except for that, I would have given the book a 5 raqting. Having said all that, the opening premise and the willingness to offer real solutions is worth wading through the data. Read it then do something to help make things better.
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Overview
The United States is bankrupt, flat broke. Thanks to accounting that would make Enron blush, America's insolvency goes far beyond what our leaders are disclosing. The United States is a fiscal basket case, in worse shape than the notoriously bailed-out countries of Greece, Ireland, and others. How did this happen? In The Clash of Generations, experts Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns document our six-decade, off-balance-sheet, unsustainable financing scheme. They explain how we have balanced our longer lives on ...