Is Retirement Still Achievable?

Get your first month of Audible absolutely free! Visit https://audible.com/secondthought or text secondthought to 500-500 Let s face it, it s hard enough just to get by these days. Saving for retirement? Now that s a pipe dream for most Americans. Why is that? Are things really that bad? Let s take a look at retirement trends in the United States and see what s behind these worrying developments. Why You ll Never Retire – Second Thought SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://bit.ly/2nFsvTS New video every Friday! Citations and Further Reading: Increase in the age of retirement and typical justifications https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/social-security/articles/the-social-security-retirement-age-increases https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/agereduction.html https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/ageincrease.html https://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/IncRetAge.html#:~:text=The%20retirement%20age%20will%20increase,full%20retirement%20benefits%20at%2065. https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/increasing-the-eligibility-age-for-social-security-pensions/ Estimates of the retirement age in the future https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/03/social-security-retirement-age-reaches-67-some-say-it-may-go-higher.html That Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement_age 97% of people depend on social security https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/top-ten-facts-about-social-security#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%2097%20percent%20of,people%20at%20all%20earnings%20levels. Social security is the largest source of income for those over 65 https://harpers.org/archive/2014/08/the-end-of-retirement/ Income and life expectancy data https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/figure/F1/ Cases of declining life expectancy among the poor https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/healthpolicy/93695 Pensions go from 40% to 13% of workers covered (some sources go up to 20%, but all show a steep decline) https://www.benefitnews.com/news/early-champions-of-the-401-k-lament-the-revolution-they-started Pensions and 401(k)s, more generally https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/24/how-401k-brought-about-the-death-of-pensions.html 52% of Americans above 55 have no retirement savings https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-19-442r Private equity funds, $230 billion, largest transfer of wealth quote https://www.levernews.com/news-trump-just-fulfilled-his-billionaire/ https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3623820 The Trump 401k policy picked up by Biden https://jacobin.com/2022/02/joe-biden-policy-private-equity-blackstone-retirement-401k https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ebsa/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/information-letters/06-03-2020-supplemental-statement.pdf https://prospect.org/economy/letting-private-equity-billionaires-rob-worker-retirement-funds/ https://www.pionline.com/defined-contribution/dol-letter-intel-ruling-pave-way-private-equity-dc-plans https://news.bloomberglaw.com/in-house-counsel/private-equity-firms-are-winning-the-fight-for-your-401k https://jacobin.com/2022/01/retirement-accounts-401k-hughes-northwestern-university-supreme-court-ruling-wall-street Camperforce https://harpers.org/archive/2014/08/the-end-of-retirement/ Labor militancy and retirement https://aflcio.org/about-us/history Retirement, generally https://jacobin.com/2017/04/retirement-social-security-pensions-welfare-state-workers/ https://jacobin.com/2019/11/retirement-united-states-work-elderly-loneliness https://claudepeppercenter.fsu.edu/neoliberalism-and-the-future-of-retirement-security/ Follow and Support Second Thought! Twitter: https://twitter.com/_SecondThought Patreon: https://patreon.com/secondthought BuyMeACoffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/secondthought CashApp: $JTChapman Watch More Second Thought: Latest Uploads: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJR_Fq2hhYVEFS11cf1YzG27 Spaaaaaace!: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJQRpqT-hMTTFx8A6VVH3m6v What If...: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJRI7VrWf_-mT0z6lrN--Cvi Popular Videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJRx7ZaO9J04Kbob_u5baHxN About Second Thought: Second Thought is a channel devoted to education and analysis of current events from a Leftist perspective. Welcome! Business Email: secondthoughtchannel@gmail.com