Who Really "Invented" Early Retirement?
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 1:42 am
Just when you are thinking you might never see it again, an REHP board poster steps up to the plate with confidence and sends a shot to deep right field. Here's a link to SeattlePioneer's latest at-bat:
http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid= ... e#21807174
The question posed is--Who Really "Invented" Early Retirement?
Ben said he believes it was really intercst, but I think he was just trying to stir up trouble. You know Ben.
SeattlePioneer said that it was Benjamin Franklin. JMitch noted that he argued the case for Franklin in an REHP thread from some time back. I remember that one. I used a quote about Franklin as the epigraph for Part Two ("The New Luxuries") of my book. I learned about the quote from reading the earlier JMitch thread.
JLC makes the case for Franklin Roosevelt, who put the idea of retiring at 65 in people's heads with enactment of the Social Security program. Before that, most middle-class workers presumed that they would work until they died, JLC notes. "Normal" retirement was a precursor to early retirement, according to this way of looking at things.
An impressive post by WendyBG states that: "Early retirement is much easier, if savings earn interest or dividends. We all take this for granted. However, capital markets that enabled investment of savings existed in few places: the imperial Roman Empire, and post-Renaissance Europe. Even in those places, average working people had virtually no access to investment opportunities. Furthermore, the interest and dividends that are paid to investors of capital require economic growth. The growth comes from increased production. While we take economic growth for granted, for the vast majority of human history, growth was zero. The only periods of economic growth >1% were the Roman Empire, and post-industrial revolution Europe."
http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid= ... e#21807174
The question posed is--Who Really "Invented" Early Retirement?
Ben said he believes it was really intercst, but I think he was just trying to stir up trouble. You know Ben.
SeattlePioneer said that it was Benjamin Franklin. JMitch noted that he argued the case for Franklin in an REHP thread from some time back. I remember that one. I used a quote about Franklin as the epigraph for Part Two ("The New Luxuries") of my book. I learned about the quote from reading the earlier JMitch thread.
JLC makes the case for Franklin Roosevelt, who put the idea of retiring at 65 in people's heads with enactment of the Social Security program. Before that, most middle-class workers presumed that they would work until they died, JLC notes. "Normal" retirement was a precursor to early retirement, according to this way of looking at things.
An impressive post by WendyBG states that: "Early retirement is much easier, if savings earn interest or dividends. We all take this for granted. However, capital markets that enabled investment of savings existed in few places: the imperial Roman Empire, and post-Renaissance Europe. Even in those places, average working people had virtually no access to investment opportunities. Furthermore, the interest and dividends that are paid to investors of capital require economic growth. The growth comes from increased production. While we take economic growth for granted, for the vast majority of human history, growth was zero. The only periods of economic growth >1% were the Roman Empire, and post-industrial revolution Europe."