Web Comments

Live in the here and now

By Linda Gibson ( chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-09 09:38
Large Medium Small

Between now and whenever we retire, countless things will happen that we can't foresee, just like they always have. And like we always do, we'll just have to cope the best we can at the moment.

Chinese are among the world's most disciplined savers, but even they have limits.

The announcement this week by an economics professor that residents of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou will need at least 10 million yuan to live on after retirement must have been a shock. That amount surely is beyond most people's limits.

Between the price of a home and a car, now considered basic necessities for forming a family, who could possibly scrimp enough yuan each week from already tight budgets to put away an amount like that?

Related readings:
Live in the here and now China needs to preserve value of its savings
Live in the here and now Good News, Bad News on China's High Savings 

Any savings young couples achieve will be eaten up first by a child, then by whatever support their parents need.

In a perverse way, this predicament is another indication that urban Chinese are catching up to their Western counterparts, especially Americans.

Like people in China, many residents of the United States are squeezed between flat incomes and soaring expenses. The two countries also share burgeoning populations of elderly people and a social security system already stretched beyond capacity.

In addition, US citizens have a dismally low savings rate and a huge amount of credit card debt.

In the face of these alarming facts and scary stories, what is the sensible thing to do?

My advice wouldn't be endorsed by experts, but here it is: Forget about it. Don't worry. Go on with your life as best you can.

After all, in reality there is very little any one of us, as individuals, can do about this. We are caught in forces bigger than us and beyond our control.

Between now and whenever we retire, countless things will happen that we can't foresee, just like they always have. And like we always do, we'll just have to cope the best we can at the moment.

In the meantime, the ulcer-inducing, high blood pressure-causing worry and stress of imagining a future of poverty and homelessness will only ruin the time between now and then. Everybody has enough worries right now without looking years ahead for even more to fret about.

Next time another expert weighs in with a frightening prediction, let him do the worrying while you do the living.