Retirees could face poverty not seen since Great Depression

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A few weeks after the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives moved to kill rules allowing states to create portable retirement savings accounts, a new survey found that 75 percent of Americans support just such an option.

The response was a common refrain in a report that echoed the growing dread of living out one’s golden years in poverty. Politicians in Washington just don’t get how hard it is to prepare for retirement, according to 85 percent of those polled by Greenwald & Associates for the National Institute on Retirement Security.

That kind of unity was related in large part to a grim view of the future faced by the elderly. “If current trends continue, the U.S. soon will face rates of poverty among senior citizens not seen since the Great Depression,” the report says. “Of the 18 million workers between the ages of 55 and 64 in 2012, more than four million will be poor or near poor at age 65. This includes 2.6 million Americans considered middle-class prior to retirement.”

The survey, part of a larger research project looking at U.S. views on retirement security, randomly polled 800 people age 25 or older by phone since the 2016 election. The report concluded that “Americans are united in their anxiety about their economic security in retirement and in their dissatisfaction with national policy makers’ inaction to address the nations retirement crisis.”

http://www.heraldnet.com/business/retirees-could-face-poverty-not-seen-since-great-depression/

[DK504]

1. This is just the beginning.

Since when has this Congress done anything Americans support? They couldn't give a shit if we become homeless. They will never vote to raise the Social Security cap or make the 1% pay their fair share or removing corporations welfare.

So living a fixed income I'm looking to rent out my bedroom for someone in my situation so people can afford rent, electricity (another welfare state) water. They just don't care, they got theirs and F all ya'll that don't.

[Sherman A1]

2. Precisely

you hit the nail on the head.

[Hortensis]

14. Well, U.S. had a NEGATIVE savings rate at times before 2008.

Negative, DK. On average as a nation, our personal savings were next to nothing or less than nothing--debt instead. 2008 did one good thing--personal savings rates have increased even as people are still hurting from low wages.

HOW to keep savings generally growing at an appropriate rate and from safe from devastating losses due to market swings is the question. Whether one should save and how to save are not.

My husband and I didn't save enough long enough, but that's no one's fault but ours. Sounds to me like you're also doing okay. After all, you have SS, a home, and an extra bedroom to rent out. I'm writing from a decrepit 50-year-old mobile home surrounded by marsh that we purchased for almost nothing (far from jobs, etc.) for snow-birding, but with full awareness that if we lost everything else, this could be our fallback.

As for "this Congress," almost half of it really does care, and I think it's incredibly foolish to tar them all with the same anger. After all, what we do not value and respect, we do not bother to protect. The terrible, stupid mistake so many made of choosing to think Democrats were as bad as the hyenas who took over the Republican Party is A HUGE PART OF HOW WE GOT OURSELVES IN THIS MESS. More pubs voted for their people than we did. NO EXCUSE FOR THOSE OF US WHO DIDN'T VOTE DEMOCRAT.

When the bastards on the right cut SS and other benefits, scream bloody murder, and next chance without fail go vote bloody murder--for people who believe in the need for government-assured retirement and healthcare programs.

[HughBeaumont]

3. . . . their solution is likely "Get Rid of Retirement; Problem SOLVED!!".

Everything's a target when all you have is a gun.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. Better create jobs then. Oops, not gonna happen.

[DownriverDem]

5. Who'd they vote for?

I bet a lot of them voted for trump. What fools!

[ffr]

7. You got it. See below.

[workinclasszero]

11. Yup

Even in my own family, I'm sorry to say.

[ffr]

6. DNC needs to include this as part of our platform.

Because as it stands, I know a bunch of republican voters who fall squarely into this demographic. They're voting against their own best interests, partially because we don't broadcast that it's a democratic ideal and mostly because Fox Noise tells them that Rs are good and Ds are bad.

[NewJeffCT]

8. Prior to Social Security and then Medicare

most seniors lived in poverty. It seems we're headed back that way.

[hibbing]

10. Someone posted a graph here once on Medicare

Obviously, the poverty rate among seniors declined rapidly. Yes, we are going backwards in so many ways, it is frightening.


Peace

[NewJeffCT]

13. If I recall the numbers correctly

Prior to Social Security, it was 90% of seniors lived in poverty. Prior to Medicare, it was 50%. Now, I think it's below the national average.

[barbtries]

9. i'm pretty sure i'll die on the job

i'm 61 and do not anticipate being able to retire in my lifetime.

[JHan]

12. It's young people he's going to fuck over...

Fuck us over on education
Fuck us over on reproductive rights
Fuck us over on climate change and environment
Fuck us over on enfranchisement using more voter suppression tactics.

Trump will want to stay in AARP's good books.

[world wide wally]

19. yep yep yep yep yep

uh huh

[onethatcares]

15. good golly miss molly

you mean you guys haven't planned on a poverty laced end of life? We can move in with our kids that are living in our basements while paying off their student loans.

It's a win-win situation.

Right????

[Sunlei]

16. Jan 2016 when last- GREAT Admin pushed this and here's today, more Republicans screw Americans

Jan. 26, 2016 12:01 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON—The White House unveiled Tuesday a raft of proposals to make it easier for workers to save for their retirements, in part by pushing businesses and states to create portable... WSJ


https://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-make-retirement-accounts-more-accessible-portable-1453784461

[world wide wally]

18. At least Paul Ryan and Louie Ghomert will be alright and that's all that matters

[Javaman]

20. history has shown time and time again...

when the gap between the haven even mores and the have even less grows to a wide enough margin, collapse occurs.

The center can not hold.