In Part 1 of my response to Sen. Bernie Sanders and economist Teresa Ghilarducci, I explained why Sanders’ favorite and most compelling factoid – that nearly half of Americans approaching retirement have zero savings – is outright false, something Sanders should have known for years.
But it’s not about a single factoid. In arguing that the U.S. retirement system doesn’t work, Sanders and Ghilarducci make several other claims that are equally incorrect, albeit for a different reason. The U.S. retirement system – both private savings and Social Security – is both massively important and massively expensive. This isn’t personal to me. I like Teresa very much. And who knows, maybe Bernie and I would hit it off. He’s grumpy, I’m grumpy.
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