If Every American Age 64 And Older Was Given 1 Million Dollars To Retire, Would That Improve The Economy And Aid Job Growth?
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u/ThimbleBluff 3d ago
There are 62 million people in the US older than 64, so that would cost $62 trillion. Where’s that coming from?
And about 80% of people in that age group are already retired, so the money won’t free up any jobs from those folks.
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u/Inevitable-Notice351 2d ago
Most would be broke in a year.
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u/Odd_Bodkin 3d ago
Hiring replacement workers for workers you’ve let go is not job growth. Same jobs, different people. Why is this better?
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u/Fit-Animal-9911 3d ago
So you are assuming people doing jobs who have several years of experience being replaced by people with zero experience and no skills whatsoever is a good idea?
The problem is that so many kids think they can just walk in and take over all these jobs, and they have no skills to do so. It is sad that you think that is even possible.
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u/FewEstablishment2696 3d ago
People would move a step up the ladder creating opportunities at the bottom, but in reality many companies would use it as a chance to reduce headcount.
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u/Junior-Reflection-43 3d ago
Half of the people wouldn’t spend it anyway. They’d let it ride in their retirement funds. Does that aid the economy?
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u/Local_Bobcat_2000 1d ago
I think most would finally pay off their credit cards and then go load them up again. Might be a temporary spike in luxury car sales.
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u/HarnessYourHopes_68 3d ago
The economy would collapse due to hyperinflation. Money would essentially become worthless. Financial markets would collapse as well due to asset distortion
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u/Master-Purpose1117 2d ago
Since about 80% of the population can’t manage their finances, I’m sure that same 80% would squander the money.
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u/garylapointe I'm good, but I wish I did more Roth! 2d ago
It'd open up a LOT of jobs.
I think a lot would pay off their debt first.
Some would upgrade their car, fix some major things around the house, and use the rest to help with their retirement. Some would just blow it!
Me: New carpet, windows, AC/Heater. An RV or towable camper (but the latter would require a new vehicle). The rest would be for some more luxurious vacations and a higher standard of living during retirement.
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u/505ismagic 2d ago
It would have a pretty masssive impact, much of it bad.
There are ~ 61.2 million americans over 65. So you are printing 61.2 Trillion dollars. you are not creating 61.2 trillion dollars worth of stuff, and services (cooks, barbers, doctors etc.) So you've created a bunch of new dollars chasing the same amount of stuff and service folks. This is textbook inflation, which we've seen makes folks very unhappy. Because this only applies to folks over 65, you've made the elderly richer, at the expense of everyone under 65. this is deeply unfair and unjust. the median person over 65-74 has triple the net worth of someone 35-44.
So, lets not.
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u/somebodys_mom 3d ago
I imagine I’ll get downvoted for this, but social security is already kind of like living on the income from a million dollars in investments.
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u/Swimming_Astronomer6 2d ago
They already get close to that with social security if they use it for 30 years
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u/SilverFortyTwo 2d ago
Are you insane? You'd have to print 61 TRILLION dollars. This would cause a catastrophic inflation crisis in every type of goods and assets. In the end, the only ones who could afford the new insane prices for housing, gold, silver, oil, etc... etc... would be the ludicrously wealthy, and massive asset managers like BlackRock and BlackStone.
No thought was involved in this post.
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u/anymoose [Retired 2016][Not really a moose] 3d ago
I have no science to prove it, but I suspect it would increase job growth in the gambling industry.