A new report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute suggests that many Americans will have a pretty brief retirement since they will have to work beyond the average life expectancy of a citizen before they can afford to retire. The report entitled “The Impact of Deferring Retirement Age on Retirement Income Adequacy,” says that a large percentage of Americans will have to work into their 70s and 80s to afford basis costs of living.
For those Americans earning between $11,700 and $31,200, they will need to work till age 76 to have a 50% chance of covering basic expenses in retirement. Those citizens earning between $31,200 and $72,500 will need to work to age 72. You have highest income quartile (making more than $72,500), you can still retire at 65.
The AARP Public Policy Institute report, “Family Income Sources for Older People, 2009″ notes the growing importance on earnings to support older Americans:
The share of aggregate family earnings income increased steadily, from 26.4 percent of total family income in 1990 to 35.0 percent of total family income in 2009 (an increase of
9.2 percentage points or 34.8 percent). This change indicates that the earnings are becoming a more important income source for older persons’ families.
In the meantime, despite reports that the $61 trillion U.S. debt amounts to to $534,000 per household, the Obama Administration will spend $750 million on just our latest war in Libya.
Here is the EGRI report: EBRI_IB_06-2011_No358_Defr-Ret
Here is the AARP report: fs224-economic
Source: MarketWatch
Jonathan Turley
“dont they have government mandated rent control in New York city?”
They’ve gutted and are continuing to gut rent control laws. A decent, and I mean only decent, two bedroom apartment throughout the five boros goes for about $2,000 per month. A studio condo in Manhattan of perhaps 700 sq. ft. sells for about $700,000 and a one bedroom for over a $million. The suburbs are worse. I had to move out of state to be able to live on my fixed income and I was a lifelong New Yorker.
Roco, you put far too much faith in the myths you’ve been sold and you have little idea of the pain felt by average Americans, that has arisen since Reagan’s sales job on “free market” reforms and reduced taxes for the rich and corporations. The current definition of insanity now in vogue: Is to keep doing what you’ve been doing, even though it hasn’t worked.
These unfortunately are the fruits of your political philosophy and while I guess you’re doing just fine, it blinds you to what’s happening to the rest of us. I say this not as an unfortunate, because wisely my wife and I have never played the credit game, so even without disposable income I have little debt save for my underwater mortgage. What you fail to understand or care about is that there are many young families awash in debt due to the needs of food, shelter and health care, who are forced to use credit cards to pay rates and fees comparable to those we used to arrest loan sharks for.
As for your notion of charity doing the job, or your belief that this was ever true, you really are at sea. After I retired I worked for non-profits and even during my City years as a director of contracts I dealt with many charities. Many are just scams or tax shelters for the wealthy and in any event the total charitable revenue generated each year is incapable of providing the funds for even a fraction of the people’s needs. your offer of a $50 donation is just to salve your conscience in a desparate attempt to prove to yourself that your really care for anyone outside your family.
frank:
“Instead of trying to drag other workers down how about we start demanding business lift everyone up?”
that is a good point. But why not start your own business and set it up that way? I have a small business and share profits with my employees when we make a profit.
I tend to agree that a man making 200 million a year while the secretary makes $25,000 is despicable, I would like to point out that it wasn’t always that way. I seem to remember Clinton putting a cap on executive salaries so they figured out a way around it by other means.
I once read the best way to figure out what you are truly worth is to start a business.
You are in an enviable position as an engineer (I assume from your posts you take care of building systems?) a good hvac man or plumber is in high demand and they charge 90 to 120/hour where I live and get it. I know mechanical and electrical engineers who don’t charge that rate and would be laughed at if they did.
Mike Spindell:
“and the rents are outlandish.”
dont they have government mandated rent control in New York city?
frank:
so the Reagan administration wanted to bankrupt the federal government by increasing the amount of money that came into the federal coffers? Even Carville and Bagala in their book said Reagan was responsible for the largest tax increase in history.
So which is it?
Congress has the power of the purse.
frank:
“What if 20 years into your mortgage the bank decided they could change the rules, sell your house & keep the proceeds? I could be superior and glib and tell you that you should have planned better but that really isn’t the problem is it?”
if it isnt in their contract they cannot and you would have grounds for a civil action against them. You have no such rights under social security, they can take it away anytime they feel like it.
I am not being glib about your predicament, it sucks to be on the ropes financially. I have been there and done that and it is not pleasant. It is very scary especially if you have children and a wife to support.
I think the free market is the way to help people, you think government is. Since we really havent had a free market for about a hundred years because of the interest rate manipulations by the Federal Reserve (which needs to go) it is government which is the problem.
I am all for safety nets for people who are at the end of their ropes.
Otteray Scribe:
What I believe in is private charity. It was the 8th largest “industry” during the heyday of capitalism. That is some serious money. Look it up.
If I didnt have to pay taxes I would certainly donate a portion of that money to help people out. The reason I am willing to send $50 to her is because I am already taxed to pay for her SS, etc.
But as I said above, please give me her address and I will gladly send her a check for $50 and my leftover seeds. And if everyone else on this blog did the same she would probably have a pretty good year.
As to your pennies argument, it isnt pennies but thousands upon thousands of dollars per year for people to pay for those programs.
One of the, very very many, things that have gone wrong in this country over the last 40 years is that there is a belief that if some worker is doing better than me they must be dragged down to my level. Unions never complained that it was wrong to give other workers more, they just asked for better for their workers. I was a non-union engineer working with unionized trades and I never heard other engineers whine “its not fair” when new contracts increased wages or benefits.
Now it seems we are at the opposite end of the scale. If I wanted to fit in I’d demand that everyone have their pensions stripped from them – plenty of people are doing just that. One of the arguments against teachers in Wisconsin was that the average salary was higher than the average for all workers in WI. That was stupid because teachers all have degrees and many have advanced degrees while many in WI do not have college education. Take those out and teachers actually make LESS than the average. But beyond that it is the attitude of “if I can’t have nobody should have it”
That hold true for everyone except the master of the universe. The entire NYC school district could be run on the earnings of the executives of Goldman-Saks. And they pay much less in taxes on that money then the teachers in the district will. Instead of trying to drag other workers down how about we start demanding business lift everyone up?
Why not…..
Sorry to disappoint you Puzzling but my pension is on the lower end of five figures and I have about $600 in my 401k. As for the NY Times, that newspaper has a history of being anti-civil servant and pro easy taxation for the wealthy. Though described for years as a left wing newspaper, it actually been right of center for about fifty years. The Times is an establishment newspaper, with an anti worker editorial policy.
“While schoolchildren crammed into crowded classrooms and poor families lost medical coverage, public employees preserved better benefits than those in many other states and did far better than private-sector workers.”
This editorial sets up a false equivalency of crowded classrooms and overpaid civil servants. NY has a higher cost of living than most other states and the rents are outlandish. The Times has consistently backed corporatist mayors like Rudy G. and Mike B., primarilly because they were pro-business in the sense of lowering business taxation and giving tax relief to organizations like the NYSE.
As far as being better paid than private sector workers, it depends which workers you are talking about. The fact is despite my education, training and intelligence I would have been better of financially if I had gone into the private sector. That’s on me though, because although quite capable I couldn’t play the corporate game, though I tried at first. A sense of purpose beyond enriching myself was what motivated my career and I derived much satisfaction from it.
OS – few doubt the merits of helping those in need. However, coercing help changes the dynamic entirely. I wrote about this a few years ago when I said:
I already figured that out.
BTW – your comment on the cause of the debt shows a total lack of knowledge about how we got to the place we are. Boy Blunders stupid wars & pointless tax cut are the majority of the problem, not just over the last 10 years and into the foreseeable future but the major portion of the total debt we started building well further back than 80 years ago.
I do want to correct one thing in the above – the tax cuts were not really pointless. David Stockman – St. Reagan’s budget director – said in his book that the goal of the administration was to bankrupt the Federal government so that it could never again be used to help the American people. It took them longer than planned but not only have they accomplished the goal they have assistance from the Democrats (those who blew dogs) and the people most hurt by the policy.
In case you haven’t noticed, it was your beloved trickle down laissez-faire economics that has resulted in the current unemployment situation. The current real unemployment rate according to numbers supplied by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is 16.6%. Currently, California has a real unemployment rate of 20%.
Lie all you want. It’s what we expect from you. It’s what sociopaths do.
But Roco, it does not have to be that way – first they (under St. Reagan) changed the rules that allowed the company to steal my money. Then they ginned up a fake crisis that allowed them in increase the FICA tax while paying out less money & increasing the age requirements. None of this was foreseeable when I started.
What if 20 years into your mortgage the bank decided they could change the rules, sell your house & keep the proceeds? I could be superior and glib and tell you that you should have planned better but that really isn’t the problem is it?
“As Marcus Aurelius was wont to say, “I seek only the truth by which no man was ever harmed.” One lives to be of service.”
no you don’t, if you did you wouldn’t want to subject people to 20% unemployment and other burdensome government programs which suck the life out of the people.
Roco, you are willing to support her yourself? Would it not make more sense for three hundred million people put in a tiny fragment of a penny apiece for her and the many thousands like her, to support her with a check for five or six hundred dollars a month in her old age? And make sure she has free health insurance? Oh wait. We already have something like that. It is called Social Security and Medicare.
“Medicare/Medicaid? He’d give them some leeches, of course.”
No, I would give them competition and reduced medical costs and less regulation so they could have more drugs come to market and more innovation in medical technology through reducing taxes and regulation on drug companies and medical equipment manufacturers.
Think not? That is what happened a very long time ago, and that is why we buy aspirin over the counter. If you had your way the FDA would still be debating the merits of aspirin and we would be going to the local shaman to have some pixie dust sprinkled on us and a newts foot burned and charred and mixed in rabbit urine for us to drink.
“This debt comes from the Bush years which saw an unneeded tax cut for the rich and the starting of two wars that ultimately had no purpose, except to benefit the rich, big oil and defense contractors. ”
Give me a break, this debt has been accruing for the last 80 years. Bush is a dick but he didn’t invent deficit spending.
Otteray Scribe:
It sounded to me as if she couldn’t do much of anything so I thought the seeds would help her out. Maybe your daughter could help her have a larger garden and put some green bell peppers up for the winter since she likes them so much.
I am willing to send her check if you give me her name. and if everyone on this blog sent $10, 15, 20 up to $50 bucks maybe she would have some extra cash to pay for heating oil this coming winter.
As I said above give me her address and I will send her $50. I know it isn’t much but it is something. Maybe she could afford her medicine this month or buy a carton of eggs instead of having to buy only one at a time.
So how about it? Give us her address or the local post office so we can all send her some money to help her out.
And I also said this above:
“What really needs to happen is to make SS private and have a safety net for the few people who do end up destitute and needing state assistance.”
Frank:
everyone has financial problems right now. I am sorry for yours but government isn’t going to be the vehicle for you to prosper. I would think the evidence is abundantly clear.