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."
Who Really "Invented" Early Retirement?
Invention of early retirement
Living from his investments was my Dad's dream and I guess I picked it up also. I remember starting a savings account while I was still in high school.
I don't know where my Dad got his ideas from. Most likely not from FDR. He was a staunch Republican and didn't have much use for him![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
I read the thread and agree with WendyBG, that it was most likely the entrepreneurs and engineers who invented our capitalist, high technology based economy that creates so much wealth that it enables ordinary people to achieve FIRE.
dual
I don't know where my Dad got his ideas from. Most likely not from FDR. He was a staunch Republican and didn't have much use for him
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
I read the thread and agree with WendyBG, that it was most likely the entrepreneurs and engineers who invented our capitalist, high technology based economy that creates so much wealth that it enables ordinary people to achieve FIRE.
dual