America’s retirement and elder poverty crisis is painful, frightful, and undeniable—yet some experts are denying there is a retirement income security crisis and trying to persuade us there’s nothing to worry about. We wish that were so, but the numbers tell us there is a quite serious retirement crisis.
Numbers Show Retirement Crisis
- Nearly half (44%) of all American households with members aged 55-64 have no savings at all and will have to rely entirely on Social Security.
- Roughly 52 percent of Americans 65 and older “are living on less than $30,000 annually, and one in four survive on less than $15,000 per year,” according to Census data cited in Senator Bernie Sanders’ report on retirement.
- Nearly 17 million older Americans aged 65 and up are financially insecure, below 200% of poverty — that’s nearly one-third; more than 10 percent are in poverty, Census data show.
Unfortunately, it’s not going to get any better because workers do not have good ways to save for retirement. 57 million working Americans do not have a way to save for retirement easily out of their regular paycheck.
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