Opinion: Half of Americans over 55 may retire poor

I don't normally pay attention to opinion pieces, but this one struck a chord with me.

Opinion: Half of Americans over 55 may retire poor
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/sav...-55-may-retire-poor/ar-BB19BXAg?ocid=msedgntp

While I'm not surprised, because I saw this coming, I'm still bothered that 1 in 2 people are going to be poor in their old age, when their bodies' fail them and they can't push themselves to work anymore no matter how much Will they have.

Is the economic system broken? How has it failed us by so much?

 

Well it's not surprising. America has stuffed immigrants into higher cost of housing cities until rent levels soared.

With so many people earning low wages over the past 15 years or so, it's not surprising their incomes would be quickly eaten up by rent.

The only solution I can foresee is the lower wage earners in the cities moving away from their friends and family, after retirement, out to the rural areas or the Rust Belt region where there are a lot of cheap older abandoned houses.
For many of them that might be unthinkable, however.

I know in many parts of the country, employers are reluctant to hire elderly persons because they are perceived to be (or are) slower and cannot work as fast on the job. And many lower level jobs will not let their employees even sit down while on the work shift, for fear that will hurt productivity, so that can make it very difficult or impossible for old persons with aching legs or bad backs.
Basically, low-skill immigration had displaced a lot of the "less-desirable" segment of workers out of the workforce (at least in some parts of the country).

The older persons who are hurt the most by this tend to be the ones with the lower wage type jobs.

For some employers there may even be pressures not to hire older persons because it can make the cost of the company's group health insurance go up.

 

I think it will be much worst than that. An Opinion... Within 5 years China will be bigger and stronger than us. In fact, their military will be within 75% of ours and they could attack, they wont, but could. I think that is for another day, in 50 years.
The stock market may continue to be propped up by the FED. They may even start buying stock directly. That KEEPS the appearance of a healthy economy.

BLS keeps changing the stats to also make things look good. Take todays Unemployment rate which magically dropped again. They just move millions from unemployed to "not looking for work" wallah you have a lower rate.
We are slowly, one day at a time going right into a depression.
They have great control ! The Media, BLS, Politicians, FED, and Banksters all work together to bring you LESS FEAR. Blame China, Blame Immigrants, the right, the left, the economy. But never ever blame the Rich or politicians. Those that actually control it all. They will become 5x richer over the next 5 years.
You, and that means all here will be luck to be worth what you are today in 5 years. Inflation is by design to take from you while telling you nothing has changed.

You can go on and on about the destruction of this country. It is real, real as it gets, yet only happens a little each day, thus no one moment to set you off.

It is coming and THEY control you. It isnt a conspiracy so too speak... It is each of them doing what is best for their friends and family. Changing the rules and making it easier for them too keep their wealth, while driving you to pay more in insurance, medical, local taxes, etc. Where you live and how well you manipulate the system to your benefit means everything.
Stay status quo, a good hard working American look to have a job and a life is GONE for 95%. You had better move to Canada or Australia and those are no picnic...
The rich intend to keep every penny they make. Biden, and especially Trump wont make them pay more. SO, where does the money come from for Infrastructure ? Social Security ? Medicare and Medicaid ? To feed the homeless, house the poor ?

The Left says they will just print it, the right says it will just work out. Socialism right now is happening for the rich as they get free money from the FED and turn it into real assets. You had better know the US Dollar time as world reserve currency is going to disapear and really fast. Without a doubt within 10 years, probably about 6

 

I think America is gonna go bk like Russia did in the past, just depends how long the rest of the world lets the fed just print money

what will the elderly do without social security and medicare?

the right thinks debt doesn't matter and is borrow and spend, the left wants to raise taxes on the rich - I think it's too late and doesn't matter, now we are just trying to keep the sinking ship afloat as long as possible

 

What? Isn't that what many of the Left thought? I see a lot more of those on the Left saying that in this forum than those on the Right.

 

Trump had a great economy, the best, according to him and his supporters, isn't that the time you pay back the debt vs borrowing more than any other President has done during a term in the history of this country

where did the tea party go?

 

That is a good question. There's a probably a lot of hypocrisy on both sides.

I would imagine the former tea party is thinking Trump's the best they're going to get.

The national debt is a big problem looming over the long-term, one that more people do not seem to recognise, or want to recognise.
Of course, that is getting into a very different topic. A discussion for another thread.

 

No, people are broken. Broken by decades of Welfare State enabling.

Even working class people think they can risk it all, because Welfare. They take chances like ... choosing crappy partners, getting divorced, failing to practice self-discipline and responsibility because it's boring, getting fat, refusing to do the hard work of owning their own home somewhere they can afford, etc etc etc.

PS: It'll be way more than half.

PPS: And they should be left to the consequences of their choices. That's the only way subsequent generations will learn to plan ahead and live responsibly. Nothing good, decent and humane comes easily - there is always a cost. Consider one or two generations lost to consequences the cost, so that future generations don't suffer the same.

 

They should have thought about that when they were 25, and realised they were never going to be rich. Even the poorest person will have a decent retirement if they start planning at age 25.

 

Your comment reminds me of this animated short from years ago during the Tea Party heyday (Sorry it's in Korean, I don't think the English version survived.):
Tea Party Express derails GOP candidates; Obama next?
Dur.:1:06.

 

It will be worse for millennials. The problem isn't the economic system. Circumstances/life choices will be the biggest drivers IMO.

 

the real tea party still exists, was just republicans took it over for a bit to use it to attack Obama, when Trump won, they all decided it no longer matter to them

 

My inlaws moved in with us when they were in their mid 80s. Father in law kept a 1/2 acre garden until he was 85. They were ok financially until alzheimer's stepped in.

My point is that you had better raise your kids right if you want help in your old age. Most people won't end up well without their children's support.

 

You misspelled "take."

 

How many years did you have to study economics to completely remove your ability to understand it?

People haven't chosen to have their rights forcibly stripped from them and made into others' private property.

 

Weird how one person can have "their rights forcibly stripped from them", yet their pal/neighbour/colleague on a similar income doesn't.

Spooky!

 

We've all had our rights stripped from us and given to the privileged as their private property. Some are just better able to withstand such injuries than others. Your claim is that no matter what injury a person suffers, if some other person who suffered a similar injury was able to withstand it and prosper despite suffering it, then if others cannot withstand it, it is THEIR FAULT for not being strong enough to withstand it. It's like the one-punch knock-out game: some of the victims get up and walk away, some suffer disabling injuries, others are killed outright. Your claim is that if a victim is disabled or killed by such an attack, it is THEIR FAULT that they weren't strong enough to take the punch and just get up and walk away, because some other victims were strong enough.

It is a moot point whether the rich expressive resource of the English language is adequate to the task of describing how vicious, despicable and evil such views are.

 

Judicious and carefully policed welfare should always be available to those whose circumstances are beyond their control, and severely limited in options. The orphan, the physically disabled without family, the very elderly without family, temporary unemployment benefits for inadvertent job loss, etc etc.

Those with sound bodies and between the ages of 18 and 70, no dice. The Wolf Pack cannot carry members whose 'mood' (psychic injury, bad attitude, laziness, sense of entitlement, addictions, etc etc) prevents them participating. Doing puts the entire pack at risk. All spare resources must be preserved for the very young, the temporarily injured, and the very old. See above re: welfare. This is where the morality buck stops. The Wolves have it right. They make us look like demons.

 

So you advocate carefully parsimonious charity for those you deem deserving, but not justice, or protection (or just compensation for the removal) of the individual human rights to life, liberty, and property in the fruits of one's labor, for anyone else. That's what I thought. What you hate above all is justice.

But somehow, the Wolf Pack can carry those who have contrived to place themselves in a position to legally take 100 times as much from the pack while contributing nothing in return...?

Somehow, I kinda figured it'd be something like that....

But before any of those get anything, the privileged are first entitled to take everything they want in return for nothing. Right?

The ones who look like demons to me are mainly those who disingenuously try to rationalize and justify the greed, privilege and injustice that enslaves billions of their fellows, and kills millions of them every year, so that the least deserving people on the planet can continue to take the lion's share of what everyone else produces.

 

This might greatly surprise you, but there are a lot of persons who won't care a crap about that statistic.

When I first got into this, I thought like you. But over the years, I discovered that blatant upfront apathy about stuff like this is extremely common.

There are a lot of people who struggled personally in their own lives, and so don't have much sympathy for anyone else. They "paid their dues", and now think it is time for someone else to suffer.
Then there are people who never struggled, and are completely detached from the types of problems other people are going through. It's difficult and uncomfortable to think about or be able to understand it.

The Paradox of Poverty

 

I posted in your thread.

 

1) There's no such thing as 'deserving'. It's a matter of practicality. We must carry the young, the old, and the disabled, and we must require the remainder to work. That's how the pack survives. Fail to adhere to that premise, and ultimately no one survives. Just think about the logistics of finite resources, and what real justice looks like in that context (hint, it looks like survival of the pack). And now think about what motivates you. What's in it for you, to enable dependence at the cost of the pack? Are you seeking to harm to those you enable (and enabling is always harmful), and to destroy the pack?

2) No idea what you're talking about here. We're discussing the realities of social mammal communities, and how they survive.

3) Well you're a flaming capitalist without resources, so it's not surprising you see demons where none exist. If you were a Commie or an ambitious go-getter, you probably wouldn't be plagued by phantoms.

 

related thread on that here:
the grim retirement some Russians face

 

That's because you don't follow real facts.
The right always puts USA in more debt.

Dems. Tax and spend.
Repubs. Borrow and spend.

 

dairyair, you have a real penchant for taking threads off-topic

I'm not going to engage with you about that here and contribute to taking this thread way off-topic