Transcript: Episode 77 (Retirement)

Virginia: Tonight we’re going to talk about retirement.

Nick: Give us all of your little subtopics.

Virginia: Ok!  So, we talked about this earlier.  What I want to talk about is a) should you have the right to retire, b) if there is, how long should you be able to spend in retirement, c) who should be able to make decisions regarding your retirement.

Andrew: Who would like to go first with points that I can then destroy?

Nick: Let’s talk about who should decide where your money goes as you’re saving for retirement.

Andrew: Let’s first talk about whether you should have a right to retire.

Nick: No.

Virginia: Why?

Nick: Because I think everyone should have a right to retire.

Andrew: I don’t think so.  I don’t think anyone has a right to retire.

Virginia: This is where your big government, and you don’t realize it.

Nick: How is that big government?

Andrew:  You don’t have a right to retire.  You should be able to retire, but it’s a personal responsibility thing.

Nick: I think you have a right to not have to work when your body is failing you.

Virginia: And the government’s supposed to pay for that?

Nick: I don’t know who’s supposed to pick that up.

Andrew: Well, if it’s a right, then someone has to pay for it.

Nick: Mostly it’s on the individual.  But, I don’t think the government should step in the way of people.

Andrew: If you’re saying it’s a right, then it means that other people have to provide it to you.

Nick: It has to be something cannot step on.  Boom.  Suck that.

Virginia: There’s nothing to suck.  We’re talking about positive and negative rights.  I’m rusty on which one is which.  One of them is that other people have to do it to you.  The other is that other people must not infringe on it.

Andrew: I’m looking it up now.  But, the most basic one is where you can’t infringe on someone’s right if you don’t do anything to them.

Virginia: For instance, don’t murder people.  That’s something that I’m not supposed to do.  Saying that people have a right to health care is different.  It means that society has to pay for health care.  By saying that people should have a right to retire, we thought you meant that everyone should have to pay for everyone else to retire.

Nick: No.  The government should get out of everyone’s way and stop making us pay into Social Security.

Andrew: I just searched for it.  Positive rights are things that require an action.  Negative rights require that you do not infringe on others.  Negative rights are things like freedom of speech, freedom from violent crimes.  These are easy to enforce because the government and other people just get out of the way.  But, negative rights are harder because someone has to fund these things.

Nick: No.  It’s not.

Andrew: What happens when you mismanage your money?

Nick: I think I should invest my own Social Security money.

Andrew: But is it a right?  Plenty of people make bad choices.  What happens to a person who is 85 years old who made a series of bad choices?  Do we still have to provide them with a retirement?

Nick: The government should probably pay for basic stuff like food, shelter.

Virginia: So, like a minimum standard of living?

Nick: Yeah.  Something like that.

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