On February 4th, 2009, before another Committee in this House, John C. Bogle, founder and former chief executive of The Vanguard Group, testified:
“Our nation’s system of retirement security is imperiled, headed for a serious train wreck. That wreck is not merely waiting to happen; we are running on a dangerous track that is leading directly to a serious crash that will disable major parts of our retirement system. Federal support-which, in today’s world, is already being tapped at unprecedented levels-seems to be the only short-term remedy. But long-term reforms in our retirement funding system, if only we have the wisdom and courage to implement them, can move us to a better path toward retirement security for the nation’s workers.”
In this context, wisdom means that we have made the investment necessary to unconditionally know-our-stuff!
And courage means that our unalienable sense of ethics and morality empowers us to do the right thing.