Laura Basset lbassett@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting
Boston College's Center for Retirement Research says the US is in a retirement crisis.
"The key sources of income retirees are relying on are either under attack, in the case of Social Security, or disappearing, in the case of traditional pensions," said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, at a press conference on Wednesday.
The early Boomers are better off than the late Boomers, and God help the poor Gen Xers. Seventy percent of them are on a track that leads to a fallen standard of living in retirement.
According to the latest retirement income data, half of 65-and-older households have an annual income of less than $29,744 .
Traditional pensions are disappearing in favor of 401(k) plans, which allow employers to shift much of the cost and all of the risk to their employees.
Congress is considering cutting Social Security to balance the federal budget.
Maria Freese, director of government relations for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said . . . that the (retirement) crisis could become far worse if Social Security is compromised.
"There's an old saying that goes, 'When you're trying to get out of a hole, the first thing you have to do is stop digging.'
The last thing you want to do is to buy a bigger shovel, and that is unfortunately what we see happening with many policy makers here today in Washington," Freese said.
Rightardia has pointed out the 401K plans were designed to be employee savings plans, not a pension plans. Only 21 per cent of Americans have pensions when they retire and many of those are government pensions.
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"The key sources of income retirees are relying on are either under attack, in the case of Social Security, or disappearing, in the case of traditional pensions," said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, at a press conference on Wednesday.
The early Boomers are better off than the late Boomers, and God help the poor Gen Xers. Seventy percent of them are on a track that leads to a fallen standard of living in retirement.
According to the latest retirement income data, half of 65-and-older households have an annual income of less than $29,744 .
Traditional pensions are disappearing in favor of 401(k) plans, which allow employers to shift much of the cost and all of the risk to their employees.
Congress is considering cutting Social Security to balance the federal budget.
Maria Freese, director of government relations for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said . . . that the (retirement) crisis could become far worse if Social Security is compromised.
"There's an old saying that goes, 'When you're trying to get out of a hole, the first thing you have to do is stop digging.'
The last thing you want to do is to buy a bigger shovel, and that is unfortunately what we see happening with many policy makers here today in Washington," Freese said.
Instead of exploring ways to strengthen Social Security and improve our private pension system, the only discussion we hear these days are the various ways Congress could cut Social Security, and presumably they're hoping nobody notices.
Rightardia has pointed out the 401K plans were designed to be employee savings plans, not a pension plans. Only 21 per cent of Americans have pensions when they retire and many of those are government pensions.
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu
Netcraft rank: 8665
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
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