State of the Union Address

Did you watch it?  The state of the union address?  Sure, the economy is doing well right now, but at what cost?  The environment.  I did not hear the environment mentioned once tonight which concerns me. 

And, exactly for whom is the economy thriving?  The working class is choking with health insurance premiums (assuming we are lucky enough to have an employer sponsored plan) and stagnant wages.  Sure, incomes may have risen 10% but everything else has risen 15%. 

The other issue that was not touched tonight was the lack of retirement savings.  This, my friends, is the real time bomb that is going off right now and it's going to have more collateral damage than Hiroshima. 

Back in the '80's when unions were smashed, whereas unions were once the caretakers and watch guards of your retirement,  it was then at the dissolution of the unions that all that responsibility be placed on the individual employees to discipline themselves to save for retirement.  The bait at the time was a bigger net weekly paycheck as nothing was taken out to fund a retirement.  You all went for it.  Sure, you all bought fancy houses, speedboats, and took trips to Europe but ne're a dime to  retirement. 

So here we are.  The great social experiment to place responsibility on the individual has failed.  You all are all now broke and whining to the government to bail you out.  How is it now fair to those who willingly saved 25% of their pre-retirement earnings going without any trips, frills or toys?  Why should they now fork over any money to you who chose not to save anything despite working for the same company and at the same pay level? 

Silence.  I thought so.