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So it turns out I have a jumble of things to write about, and I\u2019m not keen on putting them into a tightly organized set of articles as they really out to be as really all they have in common is that that\u2019s what went on and what I was thinking about this weekend.\u00a0 So let\u2019s just go somewhat in order \u2014<\/p>\n
Starting with Friday night, when my husband and I went on a walk and, along the way, I said, \u201cI think I have had enough success with pageview counts at Forbes for my articles on Chicago pensions and the election this month that I\u2019ve reached that crossover point where my per-click earnings exceed the minimum payment,\u201d and we brainstormed about articles I could write about what the various presidential candidates have to say about Social Security and retirement generally speaking, and stopped in at Dunkin\u2019 Donuts for a coffee (literally, a<\/em> coffee, since I don\u2019t drink coffee but my husband does), and, like a couple teenagers, browsed on our phones, that is, looking at the news and candidate\u2019s websites, and discovered the Elizabeth Warren proposal for \u201caccountable capitalism,\u201d which I had written about at the Patheos blog rather than at Forbes a year ago, even though there\u2019s a clear connection to retirement, because if she were able to get legislation passed obliging large public companies to have 40%+ of the board comprised of representatives elected by employees, stock values would drop (per an estimate by a lefty wonk), and, while folks like the aforementioned lefty blogger are perfectly happy with that outcome because they view stock as only owned by rich people, in reality 50% of US-owned American stock is owned by retirement funds, DB or DC, IRAs or employer-sponsored.<\/p>\n So while my husband watched TV in the study, and after he went to bed, I took that prior article, updated it and boosted the retirement connection, hunted around for updated statistics (there weren\u2019t any, so I kept these), and then, shortly before midnight, set the post to publish at 7 the next morning.<\/p>\n \u201cElizabeth Warren Wants to Cut The Value Of Your Retirement Account<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Was it a click-bait title?<\/p>\n Yes, I could have gone with something like \u201cElizabeth Warren\u2019s Plan For Accountable Capitalism Could Do More Harm Than Good,\u201d or something similarly bland.\u00a0 I could have gone with the question-asking version, \u201cDoes Elizabeth Warren Want To Cut The Value Of Your Retirement Account?\u201d<\/p>\n But commenters at my website (recall that since there are no comments at Forbes and I like the reader feedback, I use JaneTheActuary.com to invite comments) accused me of click-baiting \u2014 yet at the same time, they said my title should have been something like \u201cElizabeth Warren Wants to Give Workers A Fair Deal In The Fight Against Corporations,\u201d or the like, which suggests that the title isn\u2019t really their gripe.\u00a0 And comments have been largely in defense of her proposal, so there\u2019s that.<\/p>\n But over the course of the morning, the article started getting traction.\u00a0 \u201cOh, look, Forbes flipped it into Flipboard!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cOh, look, it\u2019s got more hits from Google now.\u201d<\/p>\n But then after lunch it was time to get ready for the Events of the Day:\u00a0 we had gotten tickets for an afternoon performance of Anything Goes at the theater near home (it\u2019s a professional theater, but hardly one of the big-time ones), for us, my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and an aunt and uncle driving in from St. Louis.\u00a0 The show was at 3:00 and we ended up picking up my parents (recall that their assisted living community is about 20 minutes away, and they can\u2019t drive any longer) a little later than we should have, taking into account the fact that it takes dad a loooog time to walk down the hallway to the elevator and then out the door, so we had a bit of a challenge getting everyone seated just before the show started.<\/p>\n And, as I had hoped, Mom and Dad enjoyed the singing and dancing even though they didn\u2019t particularly follow the plot of the show.\u00a0 (Reality is, they didn\u2019t even understand that we were taking them to a theatrical performance, thinking that I was just taking them to a movie, until we got there.)\u00a0 But I was also pleasantly surprised that the rest of us enjoyed the show, too \u2014 for as small a theater as it is, the cast was large and (near as I can tell) talented.<\/p>\n Afterwards, we picked up food we had ordered at the Olive Garden and brought it to the assisted living community, where we all ate in a semi-private part of the dining room (for a small fee, they provide the tableware and clear the table), then went up to their apartment and talked.\u00a0 The apartment isn\u2019t big, but it had adequate enough seating for everyone.<\/p>\n I was pleased with how this all went \u2014 even though it was just the \u201crestaurant\u201d = dining room, the set-aside portion of it really felt like we were at a restaurant, they had some nice ambient music in the background, and yet it was a lot quieter than a \u201creal\u201d restaurant would have been, so much less need to worry about how well mom and dad could hear.\u00a0 And I wanted the peace of mind of knowing that when dad was tired, there would be no additional delay in getting him back to his apartment.<\/p>\n And on the one hand, well, it was nice to see my aunt and uncle who we hadn\u2019t seen in a while, and they told us about their young-retiree biking adventures and we shared pictures and so forth.\u00a0 But both mom and dad were more passively watching than actively participating in the conversation, and not for lack of trying to engage them.\u00a0 Somewhere along the way I read that folks with dementia simply have a harder time processing a conversation \u2014 the equivalent, I suppose, of conversations in Germany, when it\u2019s my husband and his extended family and I try to follow the general theme of the conversation but can\u2019t keep up well enough to really be a part of it.<\/p>\n So we talked about everyone meeting up again for another such performance, whether it\u2019s for another musical of whatever kind or for the Christmas Carol production that they always do in December, but I wondered to what extent my parents enjoyed having a group of us gathered together, and whether we should attempt another effort to get mom\u2019s other sisters and brother gathered together, or whether they\u2019d be better off with smaller gatherings with just one visitor at a time, or whether they\u2019d really be better able to engage with a smaller group but would nonetheless be happier with the idea of being celebrated with a large group.<\/p>\n And at intermission, and as we\u2019re picking up the food, and periodically during dinner, I\u2019m checking the Forbes pageviews, and the counter keeps growing.<\/p>\n And I\u2019m looking at the comments, the largest number of which, as I said, were in support of Warren\u2019s plan, because of how badly, in their words, American corporations mistreat their employees.<\/p>\n And I began to think to myself, \u201cself, this is a problem.\u201d\u00a0 Irrespective of whether corporations really are as bad as all that, it\u2019s a problem for Americans to believe this.<\/p>\n And after I got home that evening, I did some more checking on the candidates\u2019 websites and some google searches and ended up with a follow-up article, \u201cElizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Capitalism, And Retirement Accounts: The Dog That Didn\u2019t Bark<\/a>,\u201d which said, basically, Warren and Sanders have sooo many plans on their websites, and yet they don\u2019t have a proposal for an expansion of the OregonSaves-type state-run autoenroll IRA that moderate Democrats are promoting, and that\u2019s unlikely to just be happenstance, but rather calls into question whether these candidates believe in the private sector playing a role in retirement, or not.<\/p>\n And I finalized this Sunday morning before bopping over to church.<\/p>\n