Low incomes, paltry savings, high debt burdensFollowing are a few lightly edited excerpts from a current
Wall Street Journal article:
"Americans entering retirement are in worse financial shape than the prior generation, for the first time since Harry Truman was president." "Their median incomes including Social Security and retirement-fund receipts haven’t risen in years, after having increased steadily from the 1950s."
"They have high average debt, are often paying off children’s educations and are dipping into savings to care for aging parents. Their paltry 401(k) retirement funds will bring in a median income of under $8,000 a year for a household of two."
In total, more than 40% of households headed by people aged 55 through 70 lack sufficient resources to maintain their living standard in retirement, a Wall Street Journal analysis concluded. That is around 15 million American households."This is a detailed, extensive and well documented article from the Wall Street Journal.
If you are not a subscriber it might be worth your time to obtain a print version of today's paper.Correction: After reading the print version at breakfast I see that this article must be on-line only- at least it wasn't in the paper home-delivered here in SF. Sorry.
Comments
And lots more along those general lines. The increasingly hard-edged lack of empathy for the less fortunate in this country is making me wonder exactly what the United States is all about.
Nikki Haley: ‘It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America’
A United Nations report condemning entrenched poverty in the United States is a “misleading and politically motivated” document about “the wealthiest and freest country in the world,” according to the Trump administration's ambassador to the world body.
In May, [the] U.N. ... released a report saying the United States has the highest rates of youth poverty, infant mortality, incarceration, income inequality and obesity among all countries in the developed world, as well as 40 million people living in poverty.
[The report] accused President Trump and the Republican Congress of deepening poverty and inequality in the country, citing the Republican tax law passed last fall: “The policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege”
Haley [argued] that the administration has created a strong economy that would lift people out of poverty and... said the U.N. special rapporteur had “categorically misstated” the progress America has made in reducing poverty, but she gave no examples.
(These excerpts from the article have been edited for brevity.)
- Some people subscribe to publications because of the quality of the content. But many subscribe because of their editorial slant (regardless of whether that infiltrates the news section). I suspect that this accounts for the comments you're seeing.
- It sounds like people today are not worse off (though not better off) on the asset/income side of the ledger. But the debit side of the ledger has grown along with the size of the "sandwich generation".
Not surprising, given longer lifespans (need to take care of aging parents) with inadequate/inefficient healthcare delivery on one end, and soaring education costs and low paying entry level jobs on the other (need to help out children). This is supposed to be the first generation for whom having children creates a net lifetime cost rather than benefit. (Speaking strictly in dollars and cents, of course.)
- A free Fortune article with much the same report abut Haley and the UN concerning "the freest country in the world":
http://fortune.com/2018/06/22/nikki-haley-un-report-us-poverty/
I take a more optimistic view of our aging issues.
Our current population is better educated, especially among the women cohort. We live longer gaining about 7 years on average since WWII. If still working, we are granted more flexibility by elastic minded employers. For example 10 hour work days are often encouraged to free Frdays. Our medical services are greatly expanded and improved treatments are quickly introduced. We have better transportation options. Inventions have made life easier. I have far more leisure time access than my parents.
I don't consider myself especially wize or talented possessing an average skill set and average luck. Luck is always an unpredictable factor and it is a constant player.
Overall, my wife and I, and our kids, are happy campers. I hope most others are likewise happy campers. I suspect that is so, although we like to complain. Most complaints are trivial and easily resolved. Life is good. So be it.
Best Wishes
The folks the article was talking about are struggling with costs for housing, day-to-day expenses, possibly college costs if they tried to help their children, possibly costs related to healthcare for aging family members, I mean the list is endless. Not all of them threw what they had down the wild living toilet bowl, they just tried to make it. We don't know their whole story but everyone of us is one catastrophic health disaster, or underfunded and/or now eliminated pension plan away from a similar situation. When was the last time SS saw a cost of living wage?
I have no doubt that you, Junkster and likely many of the visitors to MFO are all sitting pretty well off or preparing the road to get there but the article wasn't about how much better off we are today as a whole.
Sorry if you feel that I missed the primary thrust of the originating post. In my defense, I contributed in a manner that reflected what I interpreted was the dominant theme of the many responders. Perhaps I misinterpreted that also.
I really believe that things have greatly improved since my Father's Day. He struggled much more than I do to even just survive.
You specifically referenced housing costs and ownership. Even in that area, small improvements have been recorded since WWII. Here is a Link to some data in that arena:
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2017/10/09/who-is-the-new-face-of-american-homeownership/
Although the most recent data shows a rather static ownership percentage, the longer term trend line is definitely positive. Although many exceptions exist, and the US growth rates don't equal other successful Nations in several measurement areas, it has moved, and continues to move in a positive overall direction. Good for most of us.
Thanks for your comment.
Best Wishes
but how dare you say that greed is not the highest form and goal of human life!
First of all they have no business living so long. If they didn't, the United Nations wouldn't be able to pen a "politically motivated" article.
Blame the guy who doesn't have any money. It is always their fault. Always.
sometimes it is [their fault], sometimes it ain't, usually it is a combo
come on