Doesn't everyone deserve a dignified retirement? Rather than fixing our retirement system, working longer is often seen as the solution to finance retirement. But for people with physically demanding jobs or people grappling with health issues or disabilities, working longer is not an option. Teresa Ghilarducci joins us to discuss her new book  Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy  and her proposal for a Gray New Deal to fix the retirement system in the US.

Teresa Ghilarducci joins us from New York.

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Bio
Teresa Ghilarducci is the author of the new book Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy.

A labor economist and nationally-recognized expert in retirement security, she is the Bernard L. and Irene Schwartz professor of economics at The New School for Social Research and the Director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and The New School’s Retirement Equity Lab.

As a labor economist, she has spent her career working to ensure retirement security for all American workers. She joined The New School for Social Research as a professor of economics in 2008 after teaching at Notre Dame for 25 years. She frequently testifies before the U.S. Congress and serves as a media source to popular and online news outlets about pensions, labor economics, and older workers.

She also frequently publishes in economics journals and edited volumes and has authored several books, including How to Retire with Enough Money: And How to Know What Enough Is and Rescuing Retirement, co-authored with “Tony” James, who was Executive Vice Chairman of The Blackstone Group at the time and co-authored  In an unusual partnership, they outlined their bold policy vision to create Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) for all American workers.

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For More on Teresa Ghilarducci
Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy
How to Retire with Enough Money: And How to Know What Enough Is
Rescuing Retirement: A Plan to Guarantee Retirement Security for All Americans
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Podcast Episodes You May Like

Are You Ready for The New Long Life? – Andrew Scott

When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill

Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland

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Wise Quotes

On the Pyramid of Retirement Security



"Well, me and everyone else in this field knows that the building box of a good retirement looks like not pillars, but is a pyramid. There's a base and then there's a middle part, and then there's a tippy top part. I think of it as the food pyramid with the base as your fruits, your vegetables and your grains. That's a foundation and that's Social Security and that it doesn't provide all of your retirement income needs, for sure. But it's certainly a foundation. It's a foundation of security because retirement is for the lucky ones. A lot of people have missteps along the way that they have to take care of somebody and drop out of the labor force. So your family needs to be secured for that. So a spousal benefit is there, or you may be disabled, of course. And in fact, a huge percentage of people can't do their jobs mentally and physically starting around 50. And so official disability may not be in the offering, but kind of a partial disability is something that we all are at risk of having to manage. And so Social Security has to take into account the insurance system, a couple of missed quarters. We need social insurance against wild recessions where you might miss hours and work. And so you need that foundation."

On Defined Contribution Plans vs. Pensions

 






"And I think an unintended consequence of our do it yourself experiment we've had for 40 years in our country, there's no such thing as elders. You're supposed to stay young forever.