I hit someone upside the head with a 2x4 then when they complained I pointed out they could've managed their head protection better.
36
Poor decisions lead to unfortunate results. Wether made young such as having children out of wedlock or borrowing money for education or made when older like failing to pay off a mortgage as quickly as possible, these choices lead to poverty. Perhaps high school curriculums should include Poverty Avoidance 101.
28
One commenter wrote a very supercilious comment about people living in countries with public health insurance. There have been comments in other articles by expat Americans being very happy with the medical system in other countries. I started subscribing to the NYT before trump appeared on the international horizon because of the journalism. In fact I did not know who trump was! Never a big TV person. Anyways for many, many years I wondered why working class Americans voted against their interests. It is the same puzzle why working stiffs in the UK vote for the Conservatives who regularly shaft them re housing, health care, and education. Current example the roots of that terrible fire in London that killed so many people. Read about the shocking underfunding and keeping the funds to benefit the elites not the working stiffs.
58
They are takers, and some of the makers want them to just go away. And they are getting their way. The details in this article and the stories in the comments just serve to obscure the forest with thickets of detail trees.
2
There are many factors that have led to this situation, and blame lies with the individuals, the employers, and the government.
Let’s be honest - in the late 1970s, corporations began realizing that if they worked together, they could massively reduce expenses by eliminating pension plans and reducing medical coverage. The 401k was touted as a better replacement for the pension, when all along the executives knew that only a fraction of employees would ever participate and receive matching contributions. And those marching contributions are minuscule when compared to pensions.
Blame also lies with the government, which has refused to strengthen social security by eliminating the social security tax cap. And, the government is responsible for allowing the health coverage to be a for-profit free for all. Insurance companies are the big winners. Common Joes are the big losers.
Finally, there is personal responsibility. When I was growing up in the 1970s, I observed many adults who were conservative with their money, lived modestly and well within their means, and saved for the future. Somewhere along the line, these values went sailing out the door. No one wants to wait until they actually have the money for that next big purchase. Why do that when you can have it today by buying on credit? And why not take out a home equity loan and go on a lavish vacation?
Our values as a society are all mixed up. It may well be too late to turn back.
77
It is pathetically ironic that most of these same hardworking, dedicated and honest Americans fit a similar profile of those who didn't vote for the very entity that has their best interests at heart, the Democratic Party.
73
All these people whining and complaining, how many of them voted for GOP coz of race baiting ? In a democracy, you get what you deserve.
54
@FortunateSon
Another way to express what you wrote:
Housing prices are returning to the levels present during the real estate bubble, after which they collapsed to more realistic levels, given US static income distributions (except for the top 1%).
8
So, in 1991 the bankruptcy rate among 25-34 year olds was over 10 per 1000 - over 1% of the folks in that age group declared bankruptcy. Seriously?? 1991 was not exactly the depths of the Depression. Among 35-44 year olds, the rate was "only" 9 per 1000.
Where have those folks with the extraordinary 1991 bankruptcy rates gone by 2016? They've become the 50-69 year old crowd - the age group whose bankruptcy rate has dramatically increased over that 25 year period.
I know that healthcare costs have risen significantly, and I know that retirement benefits are not what they used to be. But do you suppose it's also possible that a lot of these Baby Boomers just never learned how to manage their money?
22
My husband and I are 66. We have struggled to save since we both lost jobs in our 50s to the recession. We have some savings, but not what we "should" since those major losses. We did not lose our home, and we still have some years of mortgage payments to go. We are lucky to have what we have. We both have stable-seeming full time jobs right now, but we also know that could disappear overnight.
We have saved, but we never made over $90,000 (from two incomes) in our best years in the 90s. We also had several years without insurance after we lost our "good" jobs, because we both have pre-existing conditions, and with no insurance my husband's insulin costs ran over $1200 a month. Uncertainty from multiple part time jobs and little traction getting job interviews. Hard to save aggressively when that is happening.
I do not resent or feel superior to people who have financial problems. I could have been there if my luck had been worse.
We bridge a generation where corporate America stopped offering pensions and retirement plans to offering 401K plans. I remember when my 1980s employer started offering those plans; it seemed obvious then (and more so now) that they really benefited the managers and executives at that business, not so much the general workers, who needed most of a check just to live. The assumption that you can always save aggressively is to be tempered with real lives, health issues, absurd housing costs and rampant ageism by employers.
141
how about a companion piece comparing US stats on wages, savings, healthcare, social security, life expectancy etc with those of folks in other Western countries e.g. Denmark, Germany, Canada.
50
The idea of BK laws is to allow a do over. The reality is, if you're retired, a restart is probably impossible!
23
Since you must get out and stay out of debt when you grow older you have to be realistic and walk away from unsecured debt. Yes, it will ruin your credit rating but you shouldn't be borrowing anymore anyway. If you have medical bills or other catastrophic unsecured debt again be prepared to walk away. You're borrowing days are over. Pay yourself first.
21
I am saddened by the stories told, but I am not surprised in the least.
We went thru the years knowing people and couples that always found some reason to spend money they could have saved or did not have without a concern for the future.
Everyone has some times raising families and keeping the wolf away from the door but the advice that came from the older people about saving for a rainy day and possibly some easier days at the end still ring true.
The stories are sad but will become more common in the near future. There have always been wolves in sheeps clothing in American business looking to separate you from your money. Sometimes it is just as easy as saying no. Some of us started poor and stayed scared of poverty and lived without extravagences and kept a roof over our head and food on the table. There were lots of good times that came from living that money could not buy.
I would rather have the tough times as a young man when I could do something about it.
26
Nice to put the blame on the people experiencing this. Actually, the majority of Americans are 2 paychecks away from financial disaster. It is not because we are not saving, it it because we live in a country with a completely broken system of government. Perhaps you are one of the top 10% who can afford to scoff at everyone else. But I suggest you take a good look around you at the wealth disparity, the lack of a national healthcare system, the decades long stagnation of real wages, and the gutting of the Social Security system.
Once you've done your research on those forces on our economy and our citizens, then you can see if you still blame all of us schmoes who worked all our lives and have been give the short stick.
105
@Philly Girl I agree with you, and ironically, this is all due in no small part to the fact that a large percentage of at least the white members of the people age 55 and above have been voting Republican all these years. What did they think it was going to get them, other than lack of a national healthcare system, stagnation of wages and the gutting of social welfare programs?
13
It’s embarrassing to read the comments coming in from abroad re our citizen on citizen behavior , not to mention self hatred that underlies the almost unbelievably despicable behavior outlined in the article.
Don’t we know, at some level, that the golden rule is golden for a reason...that which you allow to happen to others may very well come and haunt you.
Welcome to Schadenfreudistan.
33
And what party do they vote for ?
20
I never understand these articles. They should be written by someone at least 70 years old and receiving Social Security and Medicare, as well as being intelligent enough to pay for Medigap and Part D. How stupid can you be not to carry these benefits? And, co-signing student loans is plain insanity as well as lending money to offspring, unless you are Bill Gates or equivalent. The comments are worthless, many of them harping on pie in the sky universal healthcare as the answer. No answer. That costs money too, more taxes than these people would ever want to pay. I wonder how did I do it? Quit a good job at 51, 31 years ago, no pension worth mentioning, no huge reserve of money, not the $2 million viewed by Fidelity, Vanguard investments, etc., as a minimum for a happy retirement. Lucky, of course. No deadbeat kids, no serious illness, no felonies, no ruinous divorces, no grandiose ideas about how to succeed, no bankrupting purchases.
18
@Steve. Nonsense. If you were able to retire at 51 your situation was so far above the median that you have no business giving lectures to those who worked well int their 60s and still can’t afford Medicare supplemental plans or Part D.
What part of the fact that 25% of the elderly have less than $3,500 in savings did you miss?
98
@Paul '52. Sorry but you misread that part. It's the bottom quartile of all households who have a maximum of $3260.
1
@Steve Many disabled people under 65 who receive both Social Security Disability and Medicare are not allowed to buy Medigap. Insurers in may states are allowed to exclude you.. It is only guaranteed to be available to Medicare recipients once you reach full retirement age (66 now). Even then, you can be charged much higher rates for pre-exiting conditions.
37
The first sentence of the second paragraph says it all—this has been building for years. I turned 65 this year, have a very nice bank account that includes exactly zero inheritance dollars from my working class-raised parents, and thank them immensely for something worth far more—common sense drilled into me from Day One. I have spent the better part of a half century watching my Baby Boomer peers make idiotic decisions. For those whining about the 999 reasons for their financial difficulties, add one more. Look in the mirror.
33
Gee, good thing we all denounced that old Democratic Socialist Ind. in '16.
You all remember that rumpled suit that promoted MFA, raising the Soc. Sec. cap, saving our planet, investing in infrastructure and our citizens.
WHEW! What a disaster that would have been.
Gee...I wish I had healthcare. I wish I could retire before 70 on Soc. Sec. Knowing I'd reasonably survive and not burden society or my family. Too bad about the earth. My granddaughter would have loved the Redwoods. Oh well...
Hmm... if only our politicians ( and we et al) cared about American citizens. Maybe someday we'll have one to vote for...
Swing on and miss.
Strike three, YOUR OUT!
Too bad we missed an easy hit.
41
I am appalled at this column's naivete. First, you ignore the value of housing investments, which include the mortgage interest tax credit, as well as increased market value given the past 20 years of housing inflation. Second, you ignore the value of reverse mortgages in an inflationary housing economy. And third, you ignores the flexibility of rapidly inflating values at an age when, as I found when cleaning a closet, I discovered I already have 18 nightshirts! Seniors often have far more assets than they need.
I bought my house for $85,000 23 years ago; refinanced for about $160,000 to cover some deep renovation costs; and then switched to a reverse about 10 years ago. At that point my mortgage was $220,000 on a property then valued at $450,000, so my "cash reserve" was about $15,000, and rent from my tenants, along with social security, guaranteed me about $30,000/year in cash income.
Today the house is worth $900,000, with another $70,000 going into improvements, for a "market value" of about $1.2 million. The mortgage does eat equity, but, since that equity grows at about 10% a year, and that growth in mortgage debt represents less than 10% of that growth in value! Meanwhile the house is comfortable; my tenants are care giving neighbors with low rent; and my largest hobby is getting rid of those nightshirts and other paraphernalia.
You also should have mentioned that Trump tweaked reverse mortgages by ending tax deferrals in states where seniors had that advantage.
5
@joe Beckham
Bully for you. But what are you going to do when the bubble in million-dollar houses bursts and you find yourself underwater on the mortgage? Oh, and you have to do something about tenants not paying their rent?
No matter how well one has prepared for retirement, catastrophe is lurking for anyone not a centi-millionaire
Despite the economics happy talk in the media, we are in terrible shape.
51
Where I live, housing values have just finally bounced back to pre-recession levels.
27
This is an insightful article. It speaks to so many things gone wrong in our society -- borrowing from Social Security, the unprecedented rates of consumerism, outrageous college and medical inflation, and age discrimination in the workplace. While writing my last book, Do the Hustle Without the Hassle: A Quick, Simple, Affordable Way to Make Money Online at Age 45+, it was so apparent to me that mature persons must learn to earn income outside of the traditional 9 to 5. The article mentions that many are unable to handle a second job. This certainly is not true for all of us. If baby boomers learn how to earn income from the comfort of their own homes using skills they already have, a side hustle might be very attractive. The online gig marketplace makes it possible. Besides, the economy is changing rapidly. Since the gig economy is here to stay, soon we won't have a choice but to join the new world of work. Perhaps some of us can avoid filing bankruptcy.
3
The overwhelming problem seems to be lack of healthcare. It seems so harsh that someone, who can no longer work because of poor health or injury, loses their healthcare at a point in their life when they need it most.
69
@Suzanne Wilson: BUT NOT THESE PEOPLE, who are seniors all on Medicare.
EVERY American over 65 gets Medicare!
3
This story is a good example why Americans must unite to fight Rubio's plan to fund child care on the back of Social Security. Social Security may be the only safety net remaining when one becomes elderly due to the unpredictable nature of life. Rubio's plan would be too tempting for a young person, looking for some immediate assistance, to hemorrhage his future safety net.
45
There used to be respect for older Americans, but that has all gone down the drain. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have ignored these people for the last 30 years. They were more interested in their large donors and giving them everything they wanted and forgot that their job is to level the playing field for all citizens.
Bush's Medicare part D is now a sham. Premiums rise every year, co-pays change as do tiers. Clinton's Welfare to Work program was also short sighted, as part of that program should have been to educate those people by paying for Community College, so that most of them could earn more than minimum wage.
And don't get me started on Reagan. There is enough blame to go around in each party.
Democrats, for the most part, are much more supportive of social safety nets. So it makes sense to vote into office any Democrat who will stand up to Corporations and their fellow Republican legislators who do not choose to right our Ship of State.
We all need one another. That includes the wealthy, the middle class, the Corporations and it goes without saying, the children, the elderly and the poor.
Where have our conscience and morals gone?
34
Jean you're correct that democrats are or appear to be much more supportive. However, I think the democrats are losing on purpose. They still get paid for backing their wealthy benefactors. Why not just back a group that totally supports those ideas, the green party. There's no better wedge you use against both parties than to have a third choice. As long as we allow the two party duopoly to continue, nothing will ever get done.
9
This country needs AT LEAST TEN political parties for it to approach being “our democracy.”
I have grown tired of reading and hearing about how the Russians are meddling in “our democracy.”
We’re not a democracy. We’re not even a republic.
18
Wealth beyond the wildest imaginings of most of us, flowing to the .001%, thanks to Trump, Mnuchin, Bush 2, Ryan, McConnell & co, but "not enough money" for basic health care? Insane!
No wonder people are seething with rage and frustration.
63
Doesn't this crowd vote disproportionately Republican? They don't need no stinkin' safety net. That's socialism. You say high-priced prescription drugs and other healthcare costs put you in the poor house? Hey, that's the free market. The country's pharma complex and its disjointed, opaque medical system are the best in the world, or so we're constantly being told by conservatives. And what about those tax cuts? Now that's largesse. Just keep pulling the lever for the GOP and hope the end comes quickly, maybe -- if you're lucky -- in your sleep.
47
Go to college
Work for 40 years
Retire at 65
Die 10-20 years later
... K then
8
@William Smith easier if you have a well paying job (no guarantee even with college) that pays your healthcare and has a 401K...otherwise retire at 70 and die at 75...(even easier if you're married with two good paying jobs, and you don't get divorced...and, of course, save)...
14
@William Smith
That was the myth I bought into, t is not working.
And also I have a STEM Ph.D., too--it is a farce that we need more scientists, they are littered all over as baristas and bookstore employees.
26
You did not mention that “Katherine Porter” who runs this research is also known as “Katie Porter” and is the democratic candidate for congress in CA-45 in part to address these problems.
13
...and we wonder why we don't attract immigrants from prosperous countries...
16
I'm 72. Not quite a boomer. My generation knew how to save (after all, our parents were children of the great depression). Those younger than me didn't save. They bought ostentatious houses and cars with money they really didn't have. They took expensive vacations. They lived for today. How can they afford those things, I asked myself then. But having lived frugally, today I am prepared for come what may. Those who were freer with their money are not.
20
@DianaP So you think you are prepared for come what may, as you congratulate yourself on being more thrifty than those younger than you? We saved. Then a catastrophic illness and $300,000 gone because insurance would not cover so many expenses and the resulting disability from the illness necessitated revamping parts of our house. Then my husband got a catastrophic illness, another $140,000 gone. Now we live in fear of losing the rest of our savings. Your lack of understanding of how even thrifty people can end up impoverished shows that you have never been too ill to work, so ill you reach the max on your insurance payout, so ill your spouse has to work part time because you need fulltime care and cannot afford a daily aid. Your smugness would soon evaporate, right along with your savings.
23
@DianaP at 72 you are a Boomer...usually referred to people born beginning in the mid 1940s...
16
@DianaP you are indeed a boomer and so am I. I would not sing the praises of the older generations saving money better than the boomers- many great depression people did not in either my own family or my in-laws family. I am financially very secure, and I did not live above my means and did a better job at saving than my older relatives (except for my Mother born 1936 who did a great job). However, sweeping generalizations about the so called saving acuity of older generations do no good, and a lot of that folklore is simply not true. Many of them lived for today too.
24
Whether we like it or not, whether we vote for less government or more, we are all in this together. That’s a fact. But wait - contrary to what some people believe, this does not equate to equal distribution of money. It does not mean take all from the rich, give to the poor. No, that’s what many people worry about, those who talk about the makers vs the takers. Any society is complex, with some members contributing more than their share while others need help for various reasons. Yes, some game the system, and that is not only wrong but it also heightens the already divided social classes. Even so, surely the rich realize that they rely on the rest of society to be workers according to skill levels and education. Our shrinking middle class is a good example of the error of thinking that any one of us can live without interacting with others.
If the middle class doesn’t earn enough money, their spending decreases, and both the rich and the poor are impacted. Bottom line, yes, we desperately need universal healthcare. We need to help those who truly can’t work while stopping those who game the system. We can have an equitable society, but it’ll take effort from every one of us. No one is an island.
18
For every person admitted to medical school, there are probably five qualified but turned away. And we need more general practitioners, and fewer cosmetic surgeons. If a poor country like Cuba can educate and train a sufficient number of doctors, so could we if we had our priorities right.
46
@RM: five AMERICAN CITIZENS turned away -- with excellent grades -- including black and hispanic American citizens! -- so that rich Chinese and Indian and Pakistani families can send their children here, pay full freight tuition and get a "toe hold" in US citizenship....
Meanwhile, we have a very serious shortage of doctors, especiallly family practice and pediatrics....
10
I will state this again: 87% of the nation's wealth is owned by 11% of the people. Most of these bankruptcies could not have been avoided, since these folks never earned enough to save up for their retirement. Now, Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare. How much sense does that make? How much do Republicans care about driving old people to an early death? Not at all. Democrats will never cut these earned benefit programs. Nobody, over the age of 45, should have any decrease in their benefits. Everybody else can help our legislators come up with better ideas, and alternatives, for funding these valuable, and necessary, programs.
34
@ChesBay "better ideas, and alternatives..."...they should have come up with those ideas a decade or so ago...since they did not they better do it soon or it will too late...
4
ChesBay,
You forget that Pres. O. offered to put Soc. Sec. 'n Medicare up for negotiations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/us/politics/obama-budget-seeks-deal-i...
Also HRC never said never publicly. It was a sticking point in the primary.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/clinton-sanders-social-security_us_...
But yes...on the whole, Dems are better for the populace. One hopes...
Then again, look at the direction the country has been going for 40+yrs. With the DP's right along with them it seems.
5
@ChesBay: Barack Obama is ON RECORD -- on video tape! -- as asking to raise the age for BOTH SS and Medicare to 70 (!!!) -- not a Republican, but your Democratic, First Black POTUS Saint.
He called those programs "entitlements" and "too generous".
Never mind that even people as young as 55 have terrible trouble finding good professional jobs with benefits!
7
These the same people who will remained unemployed throughout most of their 20s and 30s. Hopefully some politician will come along and promise to take it from the other guy.
2
@Upisdown Did you read the article? This is about people who DID work hard all of therir lives but still ended up in bankrupcy because, with low wages, they could not save enough for retirement and with health insurance taken away in old age they can't afford to go to the doctor. The point is that it is not (just) the deadbeats or lazy people caught in this mess in old age.
23
@Upisdown Nonsense. I worked from 14, paid my own way through college and grad school. Husband started work at 16 and also made it through grad school on his own. We paid off our mortgage, our cars, no debt, large savings account. Two catastrophic illnesses later, we are barely hanging on financially due to medical costs and insurance companies that pay the minimum and fight you all the way for coverage in order to insure maximum profits for their shareholders. You are another smug individual who has had the good fortune not to be born with a genetic disorder or struck by cancer, thinking you have it under control because you are lived a superior life to those who are barely hanging on. Remember this, when the tide turns against you...
80
i hope more people read this articles and others and understand the "reality of life" , especially for those into old age, in America. people still think "universal healthcare" is not necessary ? government is the "problem"? without government to provide a safety net, future is going to be bleaker, especially for those of us who are getting into or in retirement. tax cut for the riches are not the answer: have any one seen the "trickles" from the top yet ? chants of " make America great again" is not enough. we need a fear-free life.
32
I would like to know who these people now filing for bankruptcy voted for, from the 1980's onwards. I don't mean to sound heartless, but I'm honestly curious whether they helped, through their votes, enable the dismantling of the social safety nets whose holes that they are now falling through.
46
@Zoe I would like to know too. I have a very snarky attitude towards these things and, going back to the Nixon administration, have felt people responsible for putting these people in office (through their unwillingness to think things through or think beyond their own current job, business or neighborhood) should be held responsible. Of course, I think it now more than ever with you know who in office.
8
Does this figure include those who purposely bankrupt themselves so that they can qualify for Medicaid? Many elderly cannot afford long-term care in a nursing home, so they must bankrupt themselves first (a sad commentary on how America treats its seniors).
31
@Thos Gryphon
Question: Is this true in every American state or simply in Washington State with your DSHS?
@MKS I believe it often happens in other states -- doesn't always involve bankruptcy per se, but often spending down to a certain evel of "poverty." I know it happens a lot in New York State, and often at the instigation of children who don't want to "lose their inheritance" by letting parents pay their own bills.
1
@ellienyc Thank you for the clarification. It sounds like a system that intentionally promotes dishonesty and greed. Yikes!
1
Not a surprise here and these problems were so predictable when industrial jobs first began vanishing to Asia during the 1980s, when America’s remaining employers cut costs by eliminating pensions and group healthcare for employees and retirees, when it became impossible to exist on low paying salaries with soaring healthcare costs, when 401Ks are dependent on the whims of Wall Street and past recessions have wiped out even modest investments, when college tuitions soared beyond middle and lower class abilities to pay, and when the basics of maintaining life such as food, medicine, housing, and transportation doubled, or even tripled, in costs during the last 30 years as the wages have mostly remained stagnant.
All of this has occurred simultaneously with many corporation’s profits and CEO salaries soaring to stratospheric heights and with a government that is exclusively beholding to only those who have the riches to influence and corrupt our elected officials to do their bidding, not ours.
And finally a public who is willfully ignorant and/or fails to vote to protect their own interests which further condemns them to a life of being the working poor and abject poverty in their elder years. As I said, there are no surprises here. As the boomers advance in years, expect to see many of them in their 80s working at menial jobs for survival reasons.
32
@Tallydon
Although it's true that "past recessions have wiped out even modest investments," the subsequent years have more than replenished them. No investment vehicle is without risk--even hoarding cash results in a loss thanks to inflation, and the stock market has consistently gained over time, even counting recessions.
3
You can blame ERISA for the demise of pensions. Before that law employers could promise a pension and not set aside enough money to pay benefits. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act required a yearly accounting from employers and required participation in and yearly payments to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, an insurance plan to protect private pensions. Faced with yearly scrutiny of their finances and increasing pension insurance costs, many employers dropped pensions.
6
Amv,
...the subsequent years have more than replenished them.
Sure, if you had something to seed corn with.
Many burned thru their savings and retirement just to survive those yrs. When you lose/or laid off during your peak earning yrs. investing long term means zilch for most hoi polloi.
They had it, they lost it, game over.
Too bad, soo sad.
They got burned.
2
I predict this is going to be the biggest economic tsunami to hit the U.S. in the coming years and decade. The three causes of the impending homelessness and poverty are these: collapse of unions (pensions), expensive health care, and high housing costs. Old people are especially at risk to lose everything and be subjected to health crises and victims of crime. Homeless camps are going to explode in major cities. Social services will be impotent in the face of the enormous demand. There's going to be social revolt, massive unemployment, and a depression at the end of this catastrophe. Most of these events are caused by corporations transferring social responsibility totally over to the individual. Citizens United gives them political control. Abandoning unions and pensions finally removed any social/financial responsibility or granting any bargaining power.
33
@gsandra614 Please explain. How do people without retirement savings and unaffordable health insurance afford over-priced homes? Maybe if people had some idea of what fiscal responsibility was, there wouldn't be massive artificial demand driving up the cost of those homes. Of course, lower home values means less money from the HELOC ATM, and we wouldn't want that now would we?
6
@gsandra614. Unions have not stopped pensions, which are called defined benefit plans. All Unions, as far as I know, still provide defined benefit plans to their members. It's in the private sector, non-union, that defined benefit plans have all but disappeared. And there is a very valid reason. Americans want low prices so costs have to be cut. Not only by moving production overseas but also by cutting costs at home. The math is very simple.
The problem is funding. Private sector plans are required by statute to be almost fully funded. Something like 98%. The real coming surprise is the public sector, which also includes union defined benefit plans. There is no statutory funding requirement of any significance. Many of these plans will soon be unable to fund their annual requirements even when holding are included.
4
The same way they did before the last crisis. Sellers are allowed to lie and then move the goal post.
1
If you are poor and disabled, you get both Medicare and Medicaid to pay your health care bills. I do wonder how you can be disabled entirely at so young an age. Sure he probably could not do carpentry work, but might be able to be trained for something else.
4
@vulcanalex It's hard to say. Having someone drop a lot of drywall on your head is very very serious, and I assume could be life altering from a cognitive standpoint.
19
One thing us adult children can do is insist on having the money conversation with our parents. Ask them what their assets and debts look like. Stop hiding behind "we don't talk about money" cliches. Have that talk as soon as possible.
15
@NH
Yes. My parents set up a family trust years before necessary with clearly defined roles, I was MPOA my brother financial.
It kinda worked as I moved back but Estate is stalled.
Brother was only same-state resident, though they had doubts he could handle it.
But clarity is important especially in the nether-world prior to a surviving spouse with dementia.
4
I am all for universal healthcare but that by itself is not the panacea for all the issues raised in this article.
Universal Healthcare - in the unlikely event that it came to fruition in this country - would be riddled with holes and gaps and the issues highlighted in this article will continue to be a factor.
This country is just becoming too expensive for seniors to live in on fixed income, what with necessity of an automobile and its accompanying costs, property taxes, medicare donut holes, rising costs for necessities that do not factor into inflation calculation etc.
It is absolutely unconscionable that drugs developed in the US are more expensive by far at home.
Trump tapped into the fleecing of the US worker and consumer. Unfortunately he has no plan to really help them.
This is especially true for those marginal earners, of whom there is a substantial chunk, who were never able to save adequately either due to low incomes or profligacy or both.
The coming years will see much harsher cutbacks and rhetoric especially given the irresponsible tax cuts.
17
The USA did not develop every drug. Canada and every other advanced nation develop drugs also. What happens is the multinational drug companies buy up the patents and market them. BTW Canada developed the useful Ebola vaccine I believe but the USA is getting the credit.
5
I am 70 years old and 10 years ago my prescient son observed, ‘Dad, your generation will be the last to enjoy the benefits of government and/or employer financed retirement benefits’. I thought his statement exaggerated- I was wrong.
36
@Lewis Sternberg The democrats were literally able to support/buy off one single generation from the cradle to the grave. Now the rest of us will have to clean up the mess.
4
This is completely expected and will get much worse.
1. People are not thinking. They are just doing what others are doing thinking that because they are doing it it's ok. Kind of like lemmings going off the cliff.
2. Longevity is increasing which, of course, means longer lives but also means much higher health care expenses.
3. The last "generation" that really knew, on a large scale basis, what real suffering was dates back to the depression. Their children may or may not comprehend what that all meant.
I'm in that group, their children, and for certain took heed from my parents and grandparents stories about how bad things were. Even then I'm still concerned and for a very good reason.
The American electorate has, for decades, voted themselves a lifestyle they cannot afford. This is the net result. As funding for this lifestyle continues to dry up they will soon go past vacuuming the pockets of the rich and focus on pretty much anyone who has lived within their means while practically planning for the future.
The end result will be only the super class, meaning the politicians and their cronies, will have a comfortable retirement.
15
Mark it's already there.
8
This is sad but some of this must be intentionally fraudulent. Many older folks knowingly give away their assets to their children and then rely on the government to support them through old age - supplemented by unreported income and assets from their kids. While Medicaid has some guards against this, many remains able to game the system.
14
@Sal: its purely a scam, so adult children can keep large inheritances and dump the cost of nursing homes on the taxpayers!
4
It really astounds me how naive people can be. You are gravely mistaken if you think the government will take care of your financial security or health care in retirement. It won't happen if the Dems, Reps or anyone else is in office.
It is your responsibility to do so, no one else's.
18
Well, this is an awe-inspiring story with no solution. Thanks, NYT. Don't just point out disaster without hope, offer some solutions please. Or should we just re-up our passports and cancel our U.S.A. players cards?
8
How about you voting and getting others to vote? There’s your solution.
22
Hubert Humphrey said: “…the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
You're 0 for 3, Mr. Trump.
52
@sezzhu - Agree. Add in the incarcerated.
10
This article touched upon people who have been in jobs/careers for many years. I shudder to think what our future will look like as a result of the "GIG" economy.
34
It is, of course, the job of government to take care of those who can't take care of themselves: private charity and individuals just can't handle the load. Just like managing a war, it takes a huge and powerful organization.
But our government refuses to do their duty. So, unfortunately, it is incumbent upon us to do everything we can to help our fellow citizens. We can't fully achieve that noble goal, of course, but we must do what we can until responsibility returns to the halls of our government.
Darkness is upon us. But rather than curse the darkness, light a candle. Every little bit helps develop a kinder, gentler America.
26
I have paid into social security and Medicare all my working life and I have to say that what I will get in return is not great. If I had been able to keep that money and invest it myself I would have a great deal more than what the government grudgingly calls my "entitlement".
The government is just not your friend. Why do so many people not get that? Why do they still, contrary to all evidence, want the government to take an even bigger role in their lives? Our government is dysfunctional, it can barely agree to fund itself. That is the government we have. The Swedes are not going to send their people over to run our single payer system. At a certain age, one accepts reality and the reality for me is that I do not want it in my life any more than absolutely necessary. They botch everything up.
11
Asher B, the government is not the problem, crooked politicians are, get it?
17
@Asher B Really? REALLY?? They botch everything up? That is a ridiculous overstatement. Of course an enterprise that large bungles things, so do humans---the thing the system is based on, imperfect humans. Think those people whose lives have been saved by firefighters---dispatched by the government you say is totally incompetent---feel that the government botches up everything? If you think you are one of the few who do everything right, then run for office or work as a bureaucrat, we need you.
12
The system is indeed broken. We as a nation must demand that our politicians make the system work for all people of all ages. The economy should work for all people and not just the 0.01%. After all, it took all of the people to generate corporate profits, why can't they also share in those profits.
Vote in November to elect politicians who will put our ideals into practice and help all of us to live with dignity until our final days.
29
@Joseph Thomas: Why does Government have to be the answer? Just stop buying things you don't need and can't afford. This will lower their profits and the big bonuses.
3
Even though a lot of us from western countries have a lot in common (we may look and sound like each other), we have some cultural and value differences.
My family visits the US at least yearly and we have met many wonderful people there. We have yet to come across an ill-mannered American and so I am puzzled as to why the US has selected the leadership it has.
The one thing that really stands out though is American’s abhorrence of taxation. Americans hate taxes, hate them with a passion. Maybe something about being taxed without representation before the American Revolution...
Canadians grumble about taxes and every few years we vote in governments that pare taxes a bit. However, we generally tolerate taxes. Even wealthy Canadians benefit from free cancer treatments and social programs for their elderly parents and a general reduction of societal chaos.
If you want a society that has free medicare for all and income programs for seniors, Americans will have to pay taxes that support these programs.
Are Americans prepared to send 1/2 their paycheques to the government? This is the general split in Canada, especially when you consider our sales taxes, property taxes and so on.
Based on conversations with Americans over the years (even very liberal sounding folks), they do not want to pay significant taxes for social programs. A lot of Americans seem very sour about taxes and want tax cuts.
This seems to be a fundamental cultural component of American people.
70
We Americans spend our lives in pursuit of happiness - that elusive notion - never really achieving it laboring to make someone else rich. Yet towards the end of our lives most of us will never reach it - certainly never afford it - laboring into a working retirement till death us do part.
Not for me - No thanks! Obamacare has certainly made my predicament more tenable with enough lifelong savings to keep me afloat and not have to work making lots of money for another thieving boss - apparently it is legal to steal employees' earning and fire them to get away with it in a so called "right to work" state like NC. Back in NYC I could have sued for theft of wages and wrongful termination.
As David Leonhardt sums up, "most workers don’t receive their fair share of economic output. An outsize share instead flows to corporate profits and the rich." (https://nyti.ms/2nfyHE0) The rich TAKE an exorbitant portion of American's wealth leaving them to fend for themselves with nothing - or worse, debt.
29
While I sympathize with those experiencing financial difficulties, I also wonder how many of them gleefully voted for Reagan, Bush I and II, and Trump. I wonder if in their short-sighted greed over the years, they bothered to even contemplate the disaster they were leaving for my generation to clean up? How many of them continually bought into Reagan's "government isn't the solution, it's the problem," line of tripe and in doing so voted against their own best interests time and time again?
It's hard to feel much remorse for a lot of the folks suffering now when it was their votes and political support over the last 40 years that has brought us to where we are now as a country. The sooner we can vote the Boomers out of office, the better off we'll all be.
56
1. Lack of wage growth since the 70's (https://hbr.org/2017/10/why-wages-arent-growing-in-america) and CEO salaries growing at 90 times the wage of the typical worker. (https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-has-grown-90-times-faster-than-t...
2. Destruction of the unions and the shift of the balance of power between the workers and companies. It's extremely tilted towards the companies.
3. Pensions replaced with 401k's and no guidance provided by companies for people that grew up when 'investment' strategies were for the wealthy.
4. The huge problem of illegal age discrimination and the layoffs of older workers. Companies only want to hire people between the ages of 21-39.
5. Those laid off older workers living on their savings until they reach social security age (assuming they make it).
6. The increases in Social Security full retirement age.
7. Huge increases in the cost of college tuition and unmanageable student loan debt.
8. Medicine as a business instead of a service. Huge increases in the cost of medical insurance, cost 'sharing', huge deductibles, expensive pharmaceuticals, etc.
9. The chipping away of the social safety net.
52
The earlier data points are from 1991, being compared to today, more than 25 years later. One of my sisters filed for bankruptcy twice, in her 20s and 30s. She's exactly the kind of person who would file again in her 50s or 60s.
The author needs to find out how many of the current older folks filing for bankruptcy have filed previously. It could be partly a bad social habit.
11
One could see this coming in 2008 when the Not-So-Great Recession wiped out jobs, savings, and home equity for millions of households.
I provided pro bono counseling for hundreds of families who presented as distressed homeowners. They first lost their overtime, then they lost their job, then the other breadwinner lost their job, then they went through savings, then relied on credit cards, all in an effort to retain what had been their most valuable asset, their home.
When they tried to refinance into a lower interest rate to reduce payments the house value had declined and didn't appraise, so they had a choice of short sale or foreclosure.
The crisis is exacerbated by the size of the Boomer generation, but there is no question the manipulation of the financial markets to capture wealth upstream of wages is unprecedented since the mid 1980s. Jobs slowly came back but at lower pay.
If there were massive campaign donations from the elderly that were larger than donations from defense contractors we would have enough public money to take care of our own citizens instead of pursuing foreign wars of choice and F-35s.
24
This is the cohort that votes for most for the Republican party.
Therefore they voted for cuts in Medicare and Social Security.
They voted for the abolishment of the Financial Consumer Protection Agency, which was establish to protect their savings.
They voted for massive tax cuts, which would will lead to a debt budget and a possible stock market crash, another threat to their savings.
Hint to the Democrats. These are the issues that could turn this boring block.
41
@Keith What cohort? Generation X? Certainly not boomers -- at least not me or any of the boomers I know (except maybe the husband of one friend, an ex-IBMer, the kind of fool who thinks "what's good for business is good for America"). Hey, we are the children of the 60s, we've been voting Democratic all our lives.
6
Worked since I was 16 and raised my daughter alone since my ex felt he didn't have to pay child support. Did all the right things, a college degree and masters while working and raising my daughter. Saved as much as possible I but then turned 50 and found myself less valued in spite of long and successful career. Worked until 75 due to a lower salary but finally quit since I was now had legal guardianship my 3 teenage grandsons due to my daughter's death. Seems the boys' daddy ( comes fro a well do family) decided to take the 1/2 million life insurance and college funds and disappear. Now he receives my daughter's social security and money from his family. He owes everybody so no chance getting $$ there. Now the boys have reached college age but no help except some minor grant money. Paid over $18k in health and dental care for the family last year. Looking at the house equity and my savings rapidly disappearing. Had enough to retire on but no longer, thought I had it all worked out. So all of you who are stating it was those folks own fault having no money due to their living style, go blow. I know I can't afford the up coming health costs as I get older so I don't plan to stay around when the time comes. So you younger folks complaining about paying for older peoples' healthcare, don't have to worry about mine even though I paid into the system all my life. Just would have liked a little rest and less worry after a hard life but so what. That is what it is.
122
@Montage Sorry to hear about these things -- especially the deadbeat son in law. You are not alone -- so many people who saved and tried to do the right thing(s) have had things like this to deal with involving kids, grandkids, parents, etc. and their plans have been turned upside down. You have much to be proud of the way you have managed, taken care of grandkids, etc.
Not long ago I heard a story about a man who had just been given a terminal diagnosis, with no cure and not long to live. His reaction? "Well at least now I won't have to worry about outliving my money." Sometimes I long for such a diagnosis.
23
@Montage
That's one of the saddest stories I have heard. You had tremendous misfortune. Still you wouldn't have been in this predicament if cost of medicine/cost of college education had been what they were 25 years ago, adjusted for inflation. Cost of medicine/college education /housing has rocketed up in the last 25 years. Yet we are told inflation is tepid...that cost of TV, cell phone, toys, tee-shirt has gone down, so what's everyone complaining about...
13
@Vasantha Ramnarayan Although I went to a private college with the help of a generous scholarship and loans, I remember that others of my generation who went to college in the 60s could usually attend the state university without loans by working part-time and in the summers. I went to graduate school at a public university in California in the early 80s and I am shocked when I seen how much tuition and fees have increased -- roughly 50 times what I paid in early 80s (and not taking into account housing or other personal expenses).
4
in the early 2000s I represented consumers filing for bankruptcy. In my practice I saw 3 things leading ordinary, middle-class clients into filing: divorce (separating households is expensive), job loss and lack of health insurance or lack of adequate health insurance. My clients who were retired paid for prescriptions and medical procedures with credit cards; otherwise, they could not afford medications or medical procedures that they needed. These clients came to me as a last resort. They were proud, had worked hard, and filing bankruptcy was an embarrassment.
Of course, our government was not going to fix the health care system. Instead, in 2004-2005, Congress made it more difficult to file bankruptcy. Banks and credit card companies lobbied hard and successfully for these changes, alleging that people were taking advantage of the bankruptcy system to discharge debts incurred for luxury items such as boats. To be sure, some people did take advantage, but in my experience not as asserted by the financial institutions. Within weeks of receiving their bankruptcy discharges, my clients were inundated again with offers to sign up for credit cards.
The fact is that we never think these things can happen to any of us. Yet we are all vulnerable to life's uncertainties, be it divorce, an unforeseen health issue or job loss. It seems that we Americans live about our own selves, in the moment, and do not frame issues as what will happen in the future.
550
@Emlo37
This should have been a NYT pick. Thank you for reminding us how the Bush administration revamped bankruptcy laws, tilting the playing field heavily in favor of creditors. And your comment about predatory credit card companies is spot on: my toddler son used to get several credit card offers a year. The solicitations only stopped when I started ripping up the applications and mailing them back to the card company in the provided prepaid postage envelopes.
15
We can thank the generation that fought WWII and the Korean War for this. Any person in America who is now in their late 50s or early 60s is facing an unpleasant reality: 401K plans and IRAs are not good replacements for traditional pension plans. The stagnating wages of the past 40 years made it next to impossible to save for anything as did repeated bouts of unemployment, some of it long term. We have, through the politicians we elected and our campaign financing, created a new age of poverty for older Americans.
Our parents might have done well but we didn't. No matter how much we did do right: saving in an IRA when we could, contributing to a 401K, setting aside money for the inevitable rainy day, it was not enough. Once we used up our money we had to start again.
We needed and still need a better social safety net. Tax breaks are not the answer here. The richest don't need them. The tax breaks that governments give to entice companies to locate themselves in specific areas penalize the residents of those same areas. And the constant cutback in funding for social safety net programs means that more and more Americans, old and young, are going to be living in or on the edge of poverty.
For a rich nation and one founded on the idea of equality for all, we do a very poor job making it a reality nowadays. We need a new contract with working Americans, older Americans: all Americans who are not rich.
660
@hen3ry
TAMRA '86 set us on the path to the muck in which many find themselves.
What is incredibly maddening is that there are too many of us that still don't quite get it. The stark reality of numbers does not lie. Beneath the surface, behind the curtain and false promises are the many ill-addressed challenges that continue to plague our most vulnerable, and dare I now say, our middle class.
Our leadership at all levels of government have violated the trust to which they have been entrusted. At the same time, we as the majority have failed ourselves by NOT staying abreast of these challenges, not being better informed of our Country's political history and forgetting that we are all in this together.
It is NO longer about our ethnicities, sexual orientation, religious/spiritual beliefs or any other "isms" that continue to hold us back from our Country's potential. Our children, our poor, un/undereducated & ill-prepared, our elderly & developmentally/handicapped challenged are our concern.
Court decisions such as like Citizen v United, Janus v AFSCME speak to the erosion of the fabric of civil society that many before us laid. Industries that continue to "rape" the system for their gain, political reps that chose power/greed over integrity & honor, displaced frustration fueled by fear helped create the status quo.
There is NO excuse for what now exists - except perhaps apathy, self-entitlement, & disengagement of many voters...
1
@hen3ry I don't consider myself rich but my 401K is better than a pension. It is not reduced if I want it to continue to support my wife, and it can be inherited. Pensions can be great if your union is powerful or a government one, not so much if you can't extort whatever you might desire.
1
I am retired. I know what can happen, so I prepared as best I can. Even as a retiree, I don't spend my entire income, but continue to save.
Right now I spend 35% of my income, pay 20% in tax, and save the other 45%. At 65, I am still young and may have many years to go. Who knows what might happen?
238
@Jonathan If you spend only 35% of your income you are in a position that the overwhelming majority of Americans can not even approach.
2
@Jonathan
You are very lucky to be able to live in a place where you can save 45% of your income. Many Americans struggle to keep their housing costs under 35% of their gross income . After taxes, health/medical insurance premiums (if they can afford it at all) and day-to day living costs, there usually is nothing left let alone to save. The amount of seemingly "ordinary" working class Americans who are living hand to mouth is extraordinary.
1
@Jonathan
I too am a saver but can only imagine you have a handsome income if you can save 45% of it.
3
Urgent changes are needed in so many ways. For most folks, Social Security is simply not enough to live on - especially not with out current healthcare payment system. Medicare is great, but comes with much out-of-pocket for anyone without a supplement plan - especially if they have a number of health issues. Even with a supplement, things can get expensive. My premiums alone for Medicate supplement (including Medicare Part D) and Medicare come to 24% of my Social Security, then the deductibles and copays add more.
It is imperative that younger voters understand that all of them are headed for the same fate. We all get old. Better healthcare access, better higher education access, and adequate income for a modest old age all cost money. That money comes from higher taxes - and the 1% cannot fund it all. We must stop pretending that healthcare can be "free" if we have a single-payer system or that "the rich" can fund everything for everybody else. It's a matter of priorities - education, better healthcare access, strong safety net are necessities. Push to increase savings undergirded by better wages are also important. There is no excuse for older folks having to do without necessities or being deprived of medical care in this nation.
217
@Anne-Marie Hislop A simple easy step would be to raise the SS contribution to a percentage of all income and capital gains. I include capital gains because it is income. You could correct it for inflation and consider the gain as the only income. The only negative is that those who don't need the money would have to pay more. I never understood why there was a limit.
26
@Anne-Marie Hislop
Social security was never meant to provide self-sufficiency for the individual. It is only one of FDR's 3-legged stool proposition.
13
Why can’t the 1% fund it all?
6
I sure hope Mr. Sedita votes BLUE up and down the ballot in November. The GOP does NOT care about anyone except themselves. If we can get a majority of Democrats in November, at the least, we can prevent further damage to our country, and hopefully repair the damage done to the ACA. ALL Republicans are self-centered narcissists.
31
@Sally L.Too bad honey. It's not the governments job to "care about you". If you make poor choices, why should I HAVE TO PAY FOR THEM? I worked for 50 years and because the job I had left me with BENEFITS, I have zero payment health care, $40k in cash, my own home and car. Why should I have to give half of it up because YOU couldn't figure out your own future? You want a government that luvs you, move to Venezuela. Everybody down there is equal in their misery.
2
pls read Montage's comment above. we can make all the right decisions and then the unexpected happens, depleting all our resources and options. what then?
15
@Fiftycal
A troll possibly but I'll bite.
You only have $40K in cash after 50 years working?
What happens if your zero pay healthcare suddenly becomes more expensive as it did for Mr. Sedita?
Don't be so sanguine as to think your current good fortune will continue.
Not too recently the Dallas police fund came close to failing. Retired teachers in TX are having to pay more for health....the chickens may yet come home to roost.
6
The Trump administration should be working hardest to protect the eldest and most fragile people in our society. They should be making meaningful changes to shore up and improve the social safety net. This is the very least we expect of our elected leaders, especially those at the highest level.
The fact that they are not, and that they are instead doing things to make sure the already wealthy get even wealthier at our expense shows you where their allegiance and interests lie. If there are in fact so many more poor than there are wealthy, then by exercising our collective votes, we can make a meaningful difference in our best interests.
Just don't be tricked by false promises by the likes of Trump and his compatriots. You will recall, Mitt Romney correctly called Trump a phony and a fraud.
26
One problem with appeals to thrift, personal sacrifice and saving is that medical costs are what the market will bear, have no appeal to thrift. Even with Medicare elderly people with increasing medical needs face a $250 charge for something here, a $1100 charge there, and 437.89 charge over here. It adds up and basically swamps anyone who is too old to work for a good living and isn't wealthy.
39
The kids working around Silicon Valley should look around at their own workplaces, and ask "Where are the people in their mid-60s (or beyond)"? Ask themselves, are they saving enough to survive forced retirement in their 50s, or a radical pay reduction in their 40s? Or are they, like many of their parents, "making ends meet" by overuse of the credit cards dangled in front of them every day? This country needs serious enforcement of existing law against age discrimination.
54
This article misleads the reader regarding its essential point. The people discussed are not bankrupt because they are old but because that is the age they happened to be when the chickens came home to roost. The cause of the bankruptcy would have occurred years earlier.
In many cases that will have been the seductive lure of easy money.
7
The four siblings in my family age 63 and older have lived quite different lives. Nevertheless, all are in financial difficulties. None of us have been lured by "easy money." All of us have worked hard our entire lives. I am currently earning the same as I did 20 years ago. Not in purchasing power, but in actual dollars. My profession has been shot apart by technology and globalization. I'm 65 and work upwards of 70 hours a week.
My parents lived into their 90s. I doubt I will ever be able to afford the medical care that would make such longevity possible. Please do not try to tell me that this is my own fault, or that this is the way society is meant to function. It is the direct result of selfishness and greed on the part of our politicians and their supporters, and the trend started in exactly the same year that Ronald Reagan was elected president. Trump is only the logical extreme expression of the boneheaded economics originally called Reganomics opr "trickle-down."
69
Greed is very dangerous, and it has been thoroughly embraced in our current system. Corporations control every branch of out government, and it is unfortunate that we don’t have mechanisms to prevent that.
It seems to me that Ronald Reagan convinced too many Americans that we are not “We the People” working together for a great country for all Americans, but “rugged individuals” competing with each other for survival.
That dystopian view has severely divided the country and fostered a severe sense of insecurity in almost everyone.
We must return to the initial intent of the founding fathers:
“to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. . . “
51
The worst part of it is that when you plan what you will need to retire you count on the social contract of Social Security and Medicare and you supplement your retirement savings accordingly.
Many workers paid into pensions, refused higher paying jobs because their pension may be lost and some bankers or volture capitalists under fund your pension or sell the business, and sell it to China and your pension that you paid into for 30 years goes poof, the joke’s on you.
And what happens to the people who stole your life savings, they write books about how they did it and how it is done, and guys like Romney who did just that run for president. We must demand universal health care and a Social Security law that reflects what was paid in and adjusted for the genuine cost of living yearly.
Legislation on student loans is needed to the following extent: First student debt cannot be sold or transferred nor contracted out for collection. Student loans should not be collectible in excess of 10% of the debtor’s after tax income in any one year and may be discharged in bankruptcy after 10 years and no cosigner shall be liable for any amount of indebtedness after the cosigner reached age of 65 years. Democrats should run on this kind of debt relief. I suspect it might garner a few votes.
59
@Sheldon Bunin
Sadly it's the taxpayers who will have to pick up the tab on student loan default. The universities/institutions who misled the students about the earnings potential of their degrees and overcharged them have already cashed out.
5
Trump has proposed a flat rate Medicare reimbursement for for office visits, regardless of doctors' specialities, expertise , or the complexity, and duration of office visits.
Under Trump's proposed plan, a rheumatologist who spends an hour with a patient who has an extremely complex medical history and condition, would be reimbursed the exact same rate as a PCP who spends 5 minutes with a patient with a sore throat, despite the additional years the specialist invested in completing a residency training, fellowship, studying for additional board exams, and so forth, which is an extremely inequitable proposal.
Should Trump's proposal become law, specialists are expected to flee Medicare en masse, which will result in skyrocketing medical costs for older Americans, who will be forced to pay out of pocket for office visits which would be covered under Medicare, currently , in which case bankruptcy among older Americans should spike .
28
And last but not least they elected Donald Trump and are leaving that legacy to the next generations. Baby boomers are the gift that keeps on taking.
12
Let's all remember that it was Sen. Joe Biden who championed and finally pushed through the notorious bankruptcy "reform" bill passed in 2005. That law, the product of strong lobbying by the banking and credit card industry, made it harder to declare bankruptcy and easier to collect credit card debt from those in financial trouble.
15
To everyone I’ve ever argued with on this topic.......I hate to say I told you so BUT...
2
Mr. Sedita is 74, why is he losing health insurance? Why isn't he on Medicare? Don't they use the 5 W's (Who, What Where, When, Why) when writing news articles anymore?
12
He is probably still on Medicare, but most who are, as I and my spouse are, also have a supplemental insurance plan that pays for portions of bills Medicare does not cover, and may have had to stop paying for as a result.
17
@tes Yes, the story leaves a lot to be desired in terms of facts on this guy's situation. Even if the Carpenters fund didn't want to talk to NYT, Mr. Sedita should have had summary plan descriptions and correspondence that would have clarified his situation, even if NYT had to get a benefits lawyer to read them.
When Mr. Sedita went out on disability I assume he continued in the Carpenters (likely self insured) medical plan, which likely included a generous drug benefit. At 65 that would have likely converted into a supplement to Medicare, but still with the likely generous drug coverage. They have likely changed their plan, which they are entitled to do and were perhaps forced to do with the chickens coming home to roost on plans that provide the typical extremely generous benefits of union plans.He may have been getting something like 100 % coverage on all his drugs with little or no copay. He still has Medicare, but he probably will have to get a Medicare suplement and a Part D (drug) plan, and no matter how much he pays, he will likely never get a drug plan from an insurance co. as generous as a union one. He should also be able to go into a Medicare Advantage plan, though none of these may be to his liking.
11
Making America "great" again.
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12
Due to the shift of responsibility from government and employers to individuals, one leg of the traditional "three-legged stool," personal savings, has become disproportionately important in retirement planning. Workers had better pay attention and start planning early on.
8
I heartily agree with the commentators pointing the way towards universal health care. Also mentioned were parents who cosigned student loans for their children. I know many who did so because their child "had to" have the experience of living in a college dorm. If their child wanted to attend a private college or out of state, even when they were accepted into fine New Jersey state colleges, they took out large loans. One couple borrowed so that their daughter can live on campus at a college less than 10 miles from their home! I both pity and am disgusted with the poor financial situation these people face going into retirement.
22
@RJ
Not to mention the luxury dorms and apartment living. When I went to collge in the early 80s we were taken to Sears and got one twin sheet set, two bath towels, two face towels. And an electric typewriter. That was it, literally. Oh, and a plastic used easter basket to carry our toiletries to the shower room down the corridor.
Now in the exact same college town the students keep IKEA, Pottery Barn, Bed Bath Beyond and other lifestyle retailers in brisk business,a nd what they they throw on the curb in spring is nicer than what i had when i was in my early 30s. Not to mention their cars. Nearly all small SUVs, not a beater in the bunch.
If they are borrowing to finane a middle-aged, middle-class lifestyle in their late teens/early 20s, don't expect to make that my problem down the road.
8
@Kosher Dill: I went to college in the mid to late 70s and I got a MANUAL typewriter!! LOL!
My niece graduated a few years ago, and I visited her at college -- her "dorm" was a TOWNHOUSE, like a fancy condo -- with 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths, and attached garage -- for 3 girls! -- she had a 65" HDTV! a smartphone (obviously) -- the "meal plan" included a fancy sushi bar -- it was like a luxury resort! her graduation present from HIGH SCHOOL was a NEW Toyota Corolla! (god forbid she drive something "used and not safe"). She went to Florida or Arizona on spring break EVERY year. All of this paid for by her doting parents! Because my niece NEVER worked in high school OR college! not one single day! And I do not think this was even slightly unusual.
1
Besides many companies eliminating traditional pension plans and telling their employees to use 401k plans instead - almost all companies that offered Definded Benefit Plans switched to Definded Contribution Plans. This forced employees to manage their own long-term retirement money - instead of the employer, who could have financial experts manage the money and provide it over the retirement life of former employees. How many people have the skill set to set up, basically, their own pension plan?!
19
@James McCormick
Companies began doing away w/ 401K plans back in the ‘80s, but it seems not a lot of people were paying attention and thought the “good times” (promotions, good paying jobs, new cars, latest home improvements, fancy vacations, etc...) would last.
4
@Carol C.
Meant to say: companies began switching to 401Ks in the ‘80s.
@James McCormick
401K plans are typically managed by expert firms like Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab etc.
The worst part about all this is that none of it will get any better with Trump in charge.
25
It’s all about divide and conquer. Come on someone, all those effected by Trump policies need to unite.
11
Hope a lot of these people voted for Trump and Trumpublicans because I think now they’ll vote differently in November.
6
"not enough years to get back on their feet..." That's the crux of it. Your potential for earnings diminishes with every passing year. Throw in your ability to change jobs or get a new one if you are laid off past age 50 and you are in deep water. First you pay the penalty and taxes and eat your 401K and IRA. Then you get a reverse mortgage and eat your house if you are lucky enough to own one.
I have in-laws who were doing OK up to age 60. Then a lay-off plus loss of insurance coverage (who can really afford COBRA?) followed by a stroke while uninsured threw a lifetime of work in the trash can. I'm sure their situation is not unique nor age specific. What's the government response? A transfer of wealth from Joe and Jill Taxpayer and their children and grandchildren to the donor class. We don't need a military parade in Washington this fall. We need the march of the middle class who have fallen off the financial cliff.
51
@RT1
COBRA payments are costly but in hindsight better than the alternative, eh? I have no respect or sympathy for people who don't make health insurance their No. 1 priority. I bet they had cable TV and internet all that time, right? And meat every day and other luxuries.
1
@Kosher Dill Your comments reflect a poverty of compassion - a type of poverty that is sadder than all our stories combined. Sanctimony can't hide the loneliness of hardening our hearts and feeling isolated from others. Americans might seek to lift themselves up by telling themselves that all who suffer brought it on themselves, but we don't feel lifted. Without kindness, we are so impoverished. And we live in the fear of the next stroke of luck that will tear the mask off the myth.
5
@Kosher Dill; I lost my health insurance in my late 30s in the early 90s when I got divorced (AGAINST MY WILL….my husband abandoned us) and the court ordered him to pay for health insurance for the kids, but NOT ME.
I was eligible for COBRA but could not afford it -- it was $750 a month at the time FOR JUST ME, a healthy person under 40! that was more than my mortgage, taxes & insurance together!
Trust me, Kosher Dill -- I was living by then as lean as anyone can, short of homeless on the street. I ate ramen noodles for dinner. NO MEAT. No eating out. No treats. No cable TV! I bought dented cans at the supermarket clearance shelf!
I am baffled what "luxuries" you think I had. Name one, and I can prove I did not have it. No air conditioning in wretched summer heat! in winter, the thermostat set at 54º at night, and 62º during the day. No cellphone (smartphones did not yet exist).
I bought my clothes at the Goodwill store, too -- and lived in a very modest, inner-ring suburb where home prices were then (and still are) well under $100K.
TELL ME WHAT MORE I COULD HAVE GIVEN UP -- I'm listening! because with all of that, I could not remotely afford the cheapest health insurance policy….25 years ago….when it was far cheaper than today!!!
2
My Grandfather told me that there was nothing sadder than a poor Republican. And yet...
13
We ain't seen nothing yet. Wait until the NEXT downturn in our economy. Coming soon, to a place near you. There will be millions of homeless baby boomers/seniors after their homes are repossessed by the banks.
19
Yup and when these older less moneyed homeowners foreclose or God forbid get a reverse mortgage to pay for the high medical bills from their underfunded Medicare plan, the Luxury real estate and corporations will just waiting to snap up the prime real estate that is owned by these victims. SMH
5
RE: Cheryl Mcleod of Las Vegas filed for bankruptcy in January after struggling to keep up with her mortgage payments and other expenses. “I am 70, and I am working for less money than I ever did in my life,” she said. “This life stuff happens.”
This life stuff happens translates to someone 70 years old should not have a mortgage. What irresponsibility.
6
@Reader In Wash, DC
Her mortgage may be affordable (perhaps a small condo) but other costs are so steep who can keep up. I too live in DC and have a 30-year mortgage, which is cheaper than renting. It'll be paid off when I hit 80.
14
This:
'Bankruptcy can offer a fresh start for people who need one, but for older Americans it “is too little too late,” the study says. “By the time they file, their wealth has vanished and they simply do not have enough years to get back on their feet.”'
True, there are no savings left. But also true, if the old bills are gone, your income is yours now. They end up living paycheck to pay check, and although social services are extremely slow (try New Jersey, a socialist blue state where you wait 2 years for hearing aid), at the end they come to you. If you can hang in there, help does arrive. years later, but still.
What needs to happen, is the stigma of bankruptcy should be removed, and seen as a solution, specially for elder folk that can use a hand.
Trust me, I am talking out of personal experience here.
6
If you think this is bad today, wait ten years and it's going to be terrifying!! No one today is saving their money; it's "carpe diem."
9
@john
So true, but even if you do save, most cannot afford $1100 a month for prescriptions plus add to that other expenses. The whole thing is a dystopian nightmare!
11
There are many contributing factors to these seniors' situation ; poor planning for retirement , living beyond their means in their earlier years and carrying debt and bad health . Aside from that , the monopoly the health industry has ie: higher drug prices , copays , and yes , the seemily attitude some in this country have towards Seniors that are not well off , of die already . I shudder to think what will happen if the Republicans have their way of undoing what little social programs now provide ( that they shamelessly refer to as entitlements ) ; they have already started with medicaid . They have no shame .
17
The problem here is the $8.75/hr wage. No human should bother to work for less than $25/hr. Anything less and you are just moving backwards.
20
@Nancy Rockford: but most jobs do not pay anything close to $52,000 a year (*$25 an hour), so what do you suggest such folks do to pay for food, rent, heat, etc.?
9
So why does Connecticut still get away with sentencing divorcees to alimony for life?
And it's not only rich people. As if people never get old and their earning power never dwindles.
And to get it lowered or eliminated costs money that by definition the payer doesn't have. The Connecticut Catch 22.
Permanent alimony is a death sentence.
3
"Driving the surge, the study suggests, is a three-decade shift of financial risk from government and employers to individuals, who are bearing an ever-greater responsibility for their own financial well-being as the social safety net shrinks.
The transfer has come in the form of, among other things, longer waits for full Social Security benefits, the replacement of employer-provided pensions with 401(k) savings plans and more out-of-pocket spending on health care. Declining incomes, whether in retirement or leading up to it, compound the challenge."
And the Times pretends "Russia elected Trump".
Indirectly this article is at least getting at some of what elected Trump. The Obama "recovery" was terrible for workers, many with solid experience and CVs.
3
@Yaj This transfer of liability began in the Reagan era (e.g., allowing companies to end pensions through ERISA), not the Obama era. Under Obama, my family came back from financial disaster. It's taken 10 years to do so, but it happened. The perception that Obama did any of this was part of Trump's success, but how do you explain the increase in taxes many middle class people will be paying now while the ultra rich is enjoying even more tax benefits? Someone has to pay, and it turns out, it's the middle class.
28
No, the "trickle-down" monster that just won't die was bad for workers, and now that your buddy Trump is twisting it into the stuff of authoritarianism and doubling (or tripling) down on both the national debt and the scourge of income inequality, it's gonna get a whole lot worse.
26
@Another NY reader:
Pretending that Obama didn't further Reagan economic policies is preposterous. You're totally unfamiliar with the basis of the Affordable Care Act I see. That is about shifting more costs of medical "care" to workers.
Nowhere did I concentrate simply on pensions, don't pretend I did.
Next time read my final paragraph fully, don't just jump to Obama defense:
"Indirectly this article is at least getting at some of what elected Trump. The Obama "recovery" was terrible for workers, many with solid experience and CVs."
Like it or not in 2016/15 Trump could run as a sort of outsider. While Hillary owned her identification with Reaganomics and Obama. And Hillary couldn't attack Trump for his own Reaganomics advocacy, since she was so tied to big ibanks.
The most helpful thing to hear is "don't buy so much stuff!" inevitably spouted by people for whom capitalism is a religion. If no one is buying "stuff" when our entire economy is dependent on buying stuff, how exactly does that help?
16
@Sally. Don't buy stuff for the sake of the economy, especially if it's things you cannot afford or don't need. Stuff depreciates while savings compound.
By doing the math, it seems Mr. Sedita has been collecting disability longer than he actually worked (assuming he started when he was 20). He stopped working at age 47 and has been collecting for 27 years.
Mr. Sedita was not elderly when he made the bulk of his life decisions that now have him in such a difficult state. Why didn't he make better choices 20-25 years ago? Like learning a new trade, downsizing to a less expensive living arrangement or saving more.
Let him be the poster child for those who think the government or a union will take care of them from cradle to grave. Even with universal healthcare coverage, we will still be responsible the quality of our own lives.
11
@Cb But it is the systemic problem of healthcare that caused his problems. How would he anticipate his Parkinson's medication rising exponentially when he didn't have Parkinson's 20 years ago? If you have a head injury, what sort of cognitive reserves do you have to go back to school?
19
@Cb This is a bit easy for you to say now. He became disabled at 47.
9
Now imagine you have several generations behind these 70-somethings with no savings, no job security, no home and no inheritance thanks in large part to the greed of the Boomer generation.
14
@RachelK you’re right we blew all of our savings raising ungrateful gen X ers who still haven’t paid us back.
14
@REZ Why blow all your savings on your kids? That sounds very irresponsible, and created spoiled adults and your current situation. Your kids have no responsibility to pay you back for anything. If you raised them with love and true financial stewardship, you'd all be in a better state.
We can start to right this ship with single payer health care and free or cheap college. It'll cost us all a lot less in the long run.
64
@CR No it will encourage irresponsibility.
3
"Others had co-signed their children’s student loans." The irony here is that co-signing does NOT mean the co-signer has to pay. That is only required if the former student does not pay. Which, if bankruptcy is the alternative for these folks, means that their kids are deadbeats sticking the parents with the bill. By the time the kid is most grown the parent should be more or less aware that the little one is responsible or not.
14
I'm 71 years old, and while I enjoy working at my well-paying job, I cannot afford to retire. My wife was forced into retirement 2 years ago when GE made it's big splashy (misguided) move to Boston. And between ever-increasing healthcare cost for seniors and paying the mortgage and taxes here in Connecticut, well, you've heard about our current situation here.
We live a pretty comfortable life now, not rich, but we can go out to eat and shop on Amazon when we want. But I feel for the folks you discuss in this piece, for the reality is, my wife and I are one major medical diagnosis, one job loss, and two years' worth of retirement savings away from bankruptcy. I'm sure there are many others my age who are just on the other side of that thin socio-economic line.
Thing is, bankruptcy for us honest citizens would be a shameful end to a life of hard work (I've held one or more jobs at any given time since I was thirteen). But for our current president, bankruptcy was just a "dealmaker's" way of doing business.
68
@Know/Comment
How can two people work that long & have so little saved? It is truly baffling. I’ve saved nearly $1m on one modest salary.
11
@Kosher Dill I agree. This is a bit puzzling.
And yet I wonder how many of these people kept voting for officials who ran on the platform of smaller, less involved government? For union busters? Who would stop all the help for those in need? Who promise to shred the safety net? Guess they didn't ever think they were going to be one of those who needed help.
56
@sjs Even if they did vote the way you speculate, Thanks for kicking them while they are down.
4
@Joe Parrott Joe, I'm pointing out the elephant in the room. Too many people voted for policies that were harsh and punishing. They just didn't think that one day those policies would apply to them.
5
@sjs I think a lot of these people vote for the "let's lower taxes some more" crowd because they think that when they win the lottery a low tax bracket is going to mean something to them.
5
In my working years in the '60-'90s I saved all I could. It wasn't a fortune, but if interest rates had remained at the rates they were then - 5-8% I think, with Social Security I would might have had enough to live on in old age without needing other help.
17
These are scary stories. I retired at 67, my wife retired at 70. We worked as long as we could, we loved our jobs. But, as happens, I could no longer keep up with the work and my wife burned out on her career. Turns out we also love retirement (She is on an organized hike right now and I'm going on a morning walk, meeting later this afternoon). We saved and invested. Raised two great kids. Have our own home. When we finally decided to retire we went to see a financial planner. After a few weeks of consultation and gathering our information together. We learned that we have a net worth of over $2 million, about half in cash. We are married 39 years and always worked on the assumption that we could live on 90% of what we made so we saved at least 10% of our income. That savings increased as we earned more. And, diversified. Our last year of working together saw a household income of about $135 K. We are still working through our finances but it looks like we will be having a similar income in retirement after we annuitize some of our savings. We will consider how we will down size our household. We both have SS, Medicare, private supplemental Health Insurance coverage, dental and long term care. We still help our grown children. I don't know really how we did it. We never expected to retire. And, we never voted against our self-interest, we voted Democrat. I also continue to work as a consultant. It is gratifying to know that I can still command $50 an hour as a consultant.
29
"12.2 percent of filers are now 65 or older, up from 2.1 percent in 1991.
The jump is so pronounced, the study says, that the aging of the baby boom generation cannot explain it."
Easy to explain, the example was set many years ago by corporate America, who used bankruptcy as a business tool to get rid of legacy costs, their retirees. This happened to me after I worked 36 years for a major airline. The retirees took a huge economic hit, while the top ten management people walked away with tens of millions. They have no shame and no remorse, most go to other corporations and do it again.
93
Well, it is sad and shameful to have Americans who work hard all their lives end up in Mr. Sedita's situation. Healthcare should be added to the Bill of Rights in order to make it possible for citizens to pursue happiness. Trump promised better an cheaper healthcare than the ACA, well this is what "Make America Great Again" looks on the ground, the carnage foretold and created by Trump and his GOP/Republicans clan!
30
@Dr. Professor: Mr. Sedita -- who has lived on SSDI (very generous payments!) for 27 YEARS! for a minor injury! -- already qualifies for Medicare -- you know? like "Medicare For All"? he already gets this! and it is more or less what Canadians have -- SINGLE PAYER! what more does he demand?
8
The article states that SS has increased the age which you can claim full retirement. This is true-it was put in place back in the 80’s, not recently as one might assume from the article. Pensions have been going or gone for a long time. The remaining pensions are typically government pensions and the vast majority are not solvent.
The rise in student loan debt by seniors is a concerrn. Everyone wants their children to get a good education or training and be successful in life. There is a huge disconnect between what kids major in and their ability to repay $100K+ in loans. If you major in a desirable field-it should be manageable. If you borrowed the max without regard for earning potential-it’s going to be a drag on your lifetime earnings, and, as noted above, could wipe out your parents if they co-signed. Choose wisely. Save for yourself first.
16
@prettyinpink
I think we blame students like we blame all victims. I have a BA in political science with no debt and a law degree and an MA. I am making about $37,000 a year. I don't need to be shamed by people like you because you think I made bad decisions. I just am not contributing to the economy in other ways. No new fridge. Stop blaming students for their debt. Most people think they are going to get a great job after graduation, the reality is just not there.
12
@prettyinpink
it's not only what field they major in; it's where they live. some cities/communities are barely affordable in terms of rent or house prices.
some parents push hard for their kids to go to college; if they did that, then they *should* share in the costs.
and if college kids chose to major in something they're skilled at but isn't quite valued enough by society, we all lose.
we don't need more business majors, and we don't need more lawyers.
we need more social workers, and teachers, and to pay them in a way that reflects how much we need them & depend on their skills.
and we need everyone to realize that our desperately needed infrastructure jobs, skilled jobs - not white collar professional - are less costly to get an education in and can pay decent enough salaries.
15
@prettyinpink The job market for any degree can change overnight. Ask anyone who graduated into the Great Recession.
4
Some of this bankruptcy is "spending down"
to qualify for Medicaid. As Medicare becomes more expensive for the elderly, divesting of assets and declaring bankruptcy becomes a more and more viable alternative to the premiums, supplementary coverage, drug coverage and doctor and prescription copays connected to health insurance for the elderly.
12
You don’t have to be bankrupt to qualify for Medicaid. You do have to deplete assets. When you do you are eligible for Medicaid. Medicaid is a safety net independent of bankruptcy.
7
society's message to the old and poor: please die soon
47
@Seattle expat. You nailed it. And in this narrative is the Opioid crisis which is greatly affecting seniors. Planned obsolescence. Maybe if they are in enough pain, and can’t afford medical coverage they will “off” themselves.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rsabo3w76f3ra4z/Suicides 9-27-17 transfer.docx?dl=0
10
Fake news. Lawrence Sedita is eligible for Senior Dimensions in Nevada paid by Medicare which would cover all his medical expenses after 5,000 annual out of pocket expenses. Nevada Hand has senior apartments for 495/month including all utilities.
5
@Francisco (Pancho) Villa: Mr. Sedita also absolutely qualifies for Medicare – no matter what happened to his union benefits – and if he is as poor as alleged here (with no real info on his SSDI checks or debts or anything else)….than he also is “dual eligible” for Medicaid and his meds and doctor visits 100% FREE.
4
@Francisco (Pancho) Villa In addition, I would be careful not to bash NY Carpenters' funds (traditionally quite generous) without more facts. Mr. Sedita left on disability in what sounds like his mid late 40s (he is now 74). Did he do anything in between? The Carpenters would likely have provided disability benefit & continued Carpenters' health care. At 65 I assume, but am not sure, health bene would turn into Medicare supplement. So he lost Medicare supplement, but not Medicare? So he still has health insurance (Medicare) but no longer has free supplement to it that possibly included free drug coverage (unions traditionally quite liberal on drug coverage,but chickens may be coming home to roost). He wasn't able to get supplemental & drug coverage elsewhere, even if had to pay a bit? He couldn't get Medicare Advantage plan? Article suggests he has NO health care coverage at all, which I find hard to believe.
Many people - not just in unions - who leave jobs on long-term disability often find health care benefits are later changed when former employer or union simply changes its benefits, often for everyone. Usually nothing you can do. There was post here recently, on another topic, from woman who retired from corporate job & her retirement benefits included free Medicare supplement. She was unhappy because former employer was switching to a Medicare Advantage plan for retirees, leaving her to either accept that, or stick w/original Medicare & pay for her own supplement.
7
But what if you don’t have $5K? Then what?
Stroll through virtually any mid- to large-size corporate office and you will see scarcely anyone over the age of 50. In the last 5-10 years I have seen middle aged workers, good producers all, fired for needing to use their health insurance for one acute health crisis. I have seen managers over 50 sustain the brunt of downsizings irrespective of the quality of their contributions to profits. I have seen career sites for companies of all sizes list allegedly open positions for experience levels maxing out at 10 years.
From a public policy perspective it is virtually useless to limit discussion of the distribution of economic opportunity as a bilateral dialog between government and employees only. It is corporations that need to be enlisted (dragged) into this discussion as they are often the entities creating the economic imbalance in the first place. Does anyone in government or the corporate sector really believe that mature workers choose financial hardship as a preferred lifestyle? I can't imagine who would.
After several decades of lengthening life spans it makes no economic sense to eject 50 year-olds from the workforce. A politically and fiscally effective solution to growing economic distress in several segments of the population probably requires a new Congress and Supreme Court...ones that don't reflexively condone forced arbitration and high legal hurdles for showing employment discrimination.
93
@Charlie: my husband – a degreed engineer! – was pushed to retire at 62….his boss and HR kept making little rude “hints” that “you are old enough now for SS!” – never mind, at 62, you take a 30% cut in benefits FOR LIFE! – and he was not ready to retire in any way – after 18 months of “hints” and vague suggestions….they gave up and just laid him off. AT SIXTY THREE!
Go try and find a high level tech job in your 60s!!! I defy you! They do not hire people that age, hardly ever! Nobody wants workers over 50, forget about 60+! To lose your job after 55, is a virtual guarantee you will NEVER AGAIN work in your field, or at a “regular job with benefits” – just part time, McCrap McJobs – Dollar Stores, Walmart, McDonalds, etc. – or “home health care” for even older people – or just NOTHING until your savings are gone and you enter SS and Medicare nearly destitute.
Yet the NYT never has done a single article to my knowledge about AGE DISCRIMINATION, which companies totally get away with!
45
@Charlie Yes, and much of what even diligent savers have been able to put away is lost both in prolonged periods of unemployment and periods of underemployment when people take any job they can get to have a little money coming in and avoid looking totally unemployable on their resumes.
If nothing else, I don't see why the government can't do something to create more jobs for people over 70.
15
why even save for retirement? Healhcare is too expensive.
My boss's in-laws went into a home once the family couldn't care for them anymore. One had a mental impairment, then other physical. Total cost: 25,000 a month. Even if you saved "1 MILLION DOLLARS" you'd get about 3 years care in that case. then Medicaid pays whatever they've negotiated.
so you save $1,000,000.00 all your life and get 3 months.
34
@Frank "why even save for retirement?" So plan B is to stick someone else with the bill? The answer to your question, of course, is so you can take care of your own expenses. You produce an extreme an example to justify an inane question.
3
This is a Cautionary Tale if ever there was one. Where is the individual responsibility in all of this? It would be of interest to know more in depth about the lifelong patterns of this group. The spending/debt patterns of the 1980s, 90's, tech stock crash -how many people bet their kid's college funds on day trading? Used their homes as ATMs? Lived way too far above means? We are life long Democrats and while we feel very badly for the people mentioned in the study, it's hard to jump on this bandwagon without knowing a bit more.
13
Do you really think the average person spent their children's college fund on day trading? Are you kidding me? The reasons are obvious, wages are stagnant, the cost of living has risen way up, medicine is unaffordable. Have some compassion.
76
@gammoner98
Look into the minimum wage. Compare it to the expenses needed to keep a roof over one's head or even feeding one's children. Even some folks who work at 2 or 3 part time minimum wage jobs end up sleeping in their cars (rents have gone through the roof in major US cities, surely you're aware of this?)
Myself I had to go into bankruptcy because my adult daughter came down with an illness that proved fatal after 5 years. I spent every cent and used all my credit cards to try to get her through, not just in helping with the meds and copays, but also in travelling to a hospital in a different city and paying for my cheap hotel while she was hospitalized and undergoing surgeries.... Of course that wouldn't have been a problem if we had lived in Sweden or Canada or France or Australia etc etc etc
You might also look at life expectancy by countries. Ours is dropping. We now rate about 50 while Canada rates 12, and it has as varied a population as the US does. I suspect that with the Trump regime our life expectancy is bound to drop even further...
Incidentally, if you do look into it, you'll find that very few or none of the country's families making the median income of $50,000 ever thought of betting in day trading, or even knew what it is, or had the means to save for a college fund or.....
Do yourself a favor and open up your eyes and your heart to others.
69
@gammoner98 Yes, like those louts who deliberately get themselves cancer, or let themselves be laid off from their jobs late in life in the 2008 recession. What on earth were they thinking, right?
18
Many lawyers won't file bankruptcy for people living on Social Security since they think that Social Security can't be garnished.
However, the federal government can garnish Social Security for student loans and V A Hospital co-pay bills.
If money is owed to a state, the state can block a person's car registration to try to motivate or blackmail responses and agreements for payment plans.
Information broker websites, like MyLife, can further exploit, profit, scandalize, and potentially assist revenge on a person who files for bankruptcy, and they can make further insinuating vague statements that can play on an older American's mind requiring a payment for a full report to get more info.
14
@Patrick. It takes time but you can opt out of all those sleazy info gathering websites. MyLife reminds me of Zuckerberg’s initial attempt at a website when he created FaceMash. MyLife and others like it are actually rating people; seriously who owns MyLife? Let’s rate him.
3
@Patrick
There are certain debts, however, that Social Security can be garnished to pay for. Those debts include federal taxes, federal student loans, child support and alimony, victim restitution, and other federal debts.
4
Were my sale by date say 5 years hence, I could probably spend a bit of money on having a slightly more spendy-spend life - say dinner out once a week. But since I'm not, I prepare for the worst. Far from being retired from the working life, I have 3 small gig economy jobs and I'd like to find a fourth. I'm not alone. While I see youngsters pedalling for Foodora, I also see some who are in or close to their 60s delivering food or driving for Uber. It's how people are managing and for some it may be a way to reactivate their life as well as afford more (or simply just pay rent). The concept of "retiring" - for many people its just not available. As for affording shelter - hopefully many seniors will consider some of the homeshare options now emerging through apps. Good luck to all.
22
In the 1960s we read about retirees having to choose between food and medicine. Medicare was the answer to take seniors out of poverty. Fifty some years later, not so much. I'll take on face value these bankruptcies are due less to poor retirement planning than unexpected medical expenses. As others have said for decades, healthcare expenses should not put seniors, or anyone for that matter, in poverty. Shame on us for letting this happen.
In addition, have Social Security benefits truly kept up with other senior needs? Can a senior live on $16,000 a year (average benefit)?
45
@Jim "Can a senior live on $16,000 a year (average benefit)?" They can with adequate savings. Social Security was meant to supplement savings.
9
@skeptic Look up the history. The SS Act of 1935 was to set up a minimum pension that allowed a person not to go into poverty, equivalent then to a minimum wage. The idea that it was supplemental has emerged in recent years only as a Republican talking point.
4
@Jim: FDR’s SS was never, ever intended to be anyone’s sole support in retirement. It simply cannot be – to have it so, you’d need to increase the payroll tax at least by 100% or more.
It was intended to be roughly ONE THIRD of your retirement income, and is taxed accordingly for this. It was supposed to be included with SAVINGS (including a paid off family home!) and A PENSION.
Nobody in 1935 EVER imagined a day when pensions would be only for the lucky 6% -- mostly public unions, which FDR was opposed to very vehemently (they are inherently CORRUPT, because their dues bribe public officials!).
If you look at government-based retirement plans around the globe….SS actually pays out as much or more than the most generous of these.
Also: a MARRIED COUPLE gets SS in each person’s name – even a stay-at-home mother would get 50% of her husband’s SS – so a couple gets more like $24,000 than $16,000.
8
The greatest 'terror' that most Americans face is their own health care system.
At the same time, we are told again and again (often by editorialists and analysts right here in the NYT!) that universal health care is basically an impossibility. "It will never pass Congress."
But just a few days ago, the same Congress moved quickly and smoothly to pass a 708 billion dollar budget for the military, with full bipartisan support. (Overall vote 87-10 in the Senate; House Democrats approved 139-49. In other words, this is not just a Republican issue.)
Average annual military spending has more than doubled since 2001. It was was roughly 300 billion a year in the 1990s. Trillions of dollars are easily available to enrich the war machine, while people go bankrupt for lack of affordable health care.
We must begin to accept that the military complex is overfunded at these levels, and that this reckless spending, and the useless and endless wars it enables (Iraq, Afghanistan, now approaching 20 year conflicts) are not in the interest of the vast majority of Americans.
We also need a new crop of political candidates who are not afraid to propose that national health care is more important to the well being of this country than a super-sized military.
96
The United States still maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad.
Yet millions of Americans have no access to affordable healthcare or higher education....
64
It is shameful that the USA allows this to happen...so much for our national values, so much for all the talk about caring for people who worked hard all their lives....greed is what drive this economy for a a small minority while the majority of people get locked out of having any kind of life other then survival & struggling, so much for the American Dream, and God forbid you get sick or injured because then you are just flat out of luck ...of course guns are easily available to anyone who can't cope w/ it all and seek to end their lives via suicide...that is the reality for many people and that is truly shameful.
25
I am sick and tired of Americans who blame politicians for all our ills. We lived on credit last 40 years. That is American way, folks, voting for politicians that promise more and who cut taxes that miraculously pay for themselves.
It doesn't take rocket scientist to figure out that we need to raise taxes to survive because we are running out of money. But who will vote for this???
Our economic system based on low taxes is a failure, it needed 21 trillions to prop up. It would not survive on its own without borrowing. And guess what, we still have millions Americans that are uninsured, we still have our infrastructure almost in ruin, we still have poor, inefficient education system, we have increasingly unaffordable collage, we still lack well educated workforce for the future, ect.
So why the heck we stick to this? And you guys blame politicians for this mess?
8
@CarolinaJoe record tax collections this year. Record collections for next year expected. The treasury is raking in more money than ever before-yet we have hundred billion dollar+ deficits. We do not have a taxation problem-we have a spending problem.
14
Yes, I blame politicians. The current majority in Congress has been cavalier with our money and should be swept out. Look at the massive tax giveaway to the rich, which will greatly benefit the man in the Oval Office, among others. And the federal deficit, which was $587 billion in Obama’s last year, is growing quickly under Trump and could soon reach or exceed $1 trillion.
And what about the gutting of healthcare, which has had devastating effects for millions of people? Forget the wall and tariffs and provide for Americans. A sickly workforce will drag us all down. Again, this is on Trump, who continues to run his business while being president, a clear conflict of interest.
16
@prettyinpink Exactly! $708Billion for defense! If we took 5% of that - 35Billion - and diverted that to social programs our defense would be impoverished - only $638Billion to spend on bombs! How could we ever survive?!
3
Low inflation and the accompanying low interest rates that have prevailed for decades have doubly impacted the financial fate of older individuals. 1) As defined benefit retirement plans have been replaced by defined contribution plans, seniors have been encouraged to rebalance their portfolios toward safer, less risky bonds instead of stock or equity investments. Remember how quickly the Great Recession reduced stock values across all market sectors due to stress in the critical financial sector.
Yet, bonds, until very recently, had been returning near record low interest income streams with record high P/E ratios. So, seniors with the most need for the safety of debt securities, have been impacted the most by these very low interest rates.
2) Also, with lower ROI investments, many of these older individuals are forced to borrow. As debt accumulates with low inflation, there is no inflationary gain for debtors. Debtors must repay the full face amount of the debt. Low inflation regarding repayments favors the wealthy; lenders, over middle income and poorer individuals; borrowers.
So, income inequality is often worsened by the replacement of more generous defined benefit retirement plans with defined contribution plans. These contribution plan assets should be shifted to less risky, lower ROI bonds and cash, with increasing age. With lower interest incomes, more borrowing ensues, with repayments at the real and full face amount required.
8/6 M 1:45p Greenville NC
8
Maybe the talk about greedy baby boomers should be challenged by these stories of workers who went through two-tier, deindustrialization, and union busting.
34
Many, thought not all, of these people are waking up in a bed that they made for themselves.
The generation in question here is wealthier than any other generation in America. The 65+ cohort has greater assets and more federal spending aimed in its direction than any of the others.
I mean, let's be straightforward here: This is the generation that's going to deplete Social Security. It's the generation that takes 3X out of Medicare vs. what they put in.
And yet here they are.
Imagine, then, how everybody else is doing.
17
Have no idea what you’re talking about. Wealthy how? In big bills? And adjust for inflation, and no, it’s not a wealthy “cohort” at all. And how can anyone condemn people for using Social Security and Medicare?
10
Very grateful now that my parents, whose families survived the hard times of the 'dirty 30's', taught all of their children the value of frugality.
Granted, living frugally is only one piece of this puzzle but it was a good lesson that my sibs and I learnt early on.
"Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, Or Do Without" was a family mantra early on. We were also strongly encouraged to give back to our neighbours and to our community and to be grateful for what one has.
19
@MKS Very holier than thou of you. How will your savings hold up to the challenge of a major or chronic illness? Let's hope you don't have to test it.
10
@Emgee As a Canadian citizen I have universal health coverage. Not seeming to be 'holier than thou', it is just different here. Canadians pay a national VAT/sales tax of 6%.
It is criminally insane that a society as rich as ours takes such poor care of our most vulnerable citizens while corporate and tech titans take home literally more then they or multiple generations of their progeny could spend. Our schools are woefully underfunded, infrastructure embarrassingly decrepit and kids having to take on huge amounts of debt to get an education in a field that this economy demands. There has to be some way to even out the distribution of assets without full blown socialism. Free trade has allowed many countries to raise their citizens standard of living but it has been disastrous for the average American worker.
27
@Tim it has been disastrous for low skilled and low education workers. High skill and high education workers are doing better than ever. Add to the wage pressures for the low skill is the fact that we have 13 million plus workers without papers living and earning a living in jobs that would have been forced to raise wages with just a little competition. We have a choice-are we to bring the world’s poorest into our country or protect its most vulnerable citizens.
3
@Tim All be design post 11/22/63.
Why do you think the Republicans for years are saying Social security is broke? So when they have extracted all the money from the middle class leaving tens of trillions in dept they can say, see told you.
17
I have recently become eligible for Medicare. I can tell you it is not cheap at all. The premium is based on your income. It can be as high as around $425.00 a month. Then there is the supplement, which is another fortune. A good supplement coast around $200 a month. Then there is Part D, which costs less, but is another cost. The yearly deductible is $183, which is unheard of with commercial insurance. So the insurance is better, but it is far, far from affordable.
19
@Support Occupy Wall Street Part A is free. It's the Part B premium that can be high, but only if your income is high and it goes back down if your income drops. You can get a very good Medicare Supplement (High Deductible Plan F), which costs under $75 a month in Manhattan (though you have to go on state insurance dept website to find out who is currently offering it -- AARP and its insurer do not offer High Deductible Plan F because not enough profit in it for United Healthcare and AARP won't force them to offer it).
I pay around $17 a month for my Part D plan. I never meet my deductible (don't even know what it is) because I am healthy -- but the prices I pay when I go to CVS for drugs I do take are very low -- one is free, another is $1, and so forth. Medicare has a tool for researching Part D plans that can be very useful and show what monthly costs will be both before and after deductible met. It also shows what deductibles are under plans offered in your area.
7
Gosh if only older Americans hadn't lived such a lavish life they couldn't afford while voting in politicians who implemented policies to concentrate most new wealth in the hands of a few. Reagan unquestionably accelerated this rot and they clapped and lapped it all up. There are consequences to short sighted poor decisions. Welcome to the show.
23
Too bad those of us older folks who weren’t so short sighted will suffer the same consequences.
14
I've been a volunteer at a local homeless shelter for a long time. I increasingly see elderly people come for breakfast and lunch meals because they are hungry and cannot afford to buy food. These are normal people who worked their whole lives, raised their children, paid their mortgage and bills on time because it was the right thing to do and that's how they were raised by their parents. Sadly, those attributes are no longer sufficient to ensure security in old age and they are terrified of the future. I'm scared for them, too.
America can do better than this and can afford to do it.
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@Mary Terry No, the wealth MUST be transferred to military aged, brown skinned males around the world. That's what we've been told post WWII.
Far worse than bankruptcy is homelessness, where the innocent are preyed on by criminals or those who are mentally unstable.
12
My goodness the American Nightmare is true. Even with Medicare and Medicaid seniors are in desperate straits. So many can only hope for an early death at 78 to relieve the agony of living in these United States.
26
@Andrew I heard a funny story from a woman who said a friend of hers had received a diagnosis of a terminal illness with not long to live: His reaction: "Well at least now I don't have to worry about outliving my money!"
5
Two words MEDICAL BILLS.
I recently got a rabies shot and got a bill. I owed $500 and insurance paid $10,300. I called my insurance and they fixed their mistake and paid an additional $250.
My coworker got a rabies shot after being bitten by an unvaccinated puppy. Cost was $40 and insurance paid $1500.
Can someone from the medical industry please explain why the same procedure in the same region can vary in cost by over 7 times? Neither were ER visits either.
Get slammed with repeated barrages of thousands of dollars of medical bills for a 1-2 night stay at the ER and you'll go bankrupt fast, even with insurance. God help you if youre in the hospital for say a week.
I encourage Americans to go abroad for as much medical care as they can. If our government isn't going to fix the problem they caused then get as much done abroad as possible.
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@Snake6390 $11K for a rabies shot??? Why are they so much cheaper when my dog gets them? Maybe I'll start using my vet as my primary care physician.
21
More information is needed about Mr. Sedita. If he's 74, isn't he eligible for Medicare in addition to whatever benefits the union owes him?
12
I’m wondering about that myself
1
@Sharon Exactly. But traditionally many of the unions have provided generous health care benes (often with free drugs) that turned into generous Medicare supplements at 65. I suspect that what he lost is the free supplement or some portion of it (probably including the drugs). There is no reason why he can't buy his own supplement and Part D plan OR switch to a Medicare Advantage Plan.
5
Not one mention of the government's role in reducing our standard of living - from the Federal Reserve's Quantitative Easing program debasing the purchasing power of our savings and increasing rents, to the under-reporting of inflation via the practice of "hedonics" (google it) in massaging inflation statistics, thus reducing our Social Security COLA adjustments. The government is cheating us, coming and going; taxing us on our income and taxing us on our purchases.
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@Bill I never understood why we have a 2% inflation “target”. To what end does making everything 20% more expensive every 10 years? Well, it helps the government pay its debts-of course, with dollar debased money. To those who save -sorry.
1
@prettyinpink
It has been observed that growing economies have a sweet spot of a 2% inflation rate. Thus, working backwards, economists figure that if they can artificially increase prices by 2% we'll have economic growth. Higher prices usually mean higher demand which leads to job creation. It's also a form of redistribution in that your savings is being diluted for the benefit of job seekers. Young, unemployed, job seekers tend to be a greater threat to social stability than starving old people.
Michael, from the UK asks, "why do you not look after your citizens?" This is the fundamental question. Where is our humanity? The wealthy need not worry. The system is rigged in their favor with tax breaks and loopholes too numerous to mention. Perhaps if our leadership had a soul things would not be so dire. What is needed is compassion and the will to do the right thing. The ideas of Bernie Sanders and others are called socialism! Capitalism is clearly not working. The country needs to pivot.
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I wish Trump had not trash-talked Obamacare out of existence
18
Didn’t trump say he would make sure everyone would have medical coverage and that it would be”beautiful”?Still waiting.
19
Meanwhile, government employees retire at 52 with gold-plated pensions and benefits. Do you old geezers know how many government retirees are waiting for their pension checks, sitting on their boats in Florida? Get back to work! You've got another ten years of generating tax dollars left in you!
18
@John In New York City some employees (especially in NYFD and NYPD) can retire in early 40s with full unreduced defined benefit pensions (usually in 6 figures), with annual COL increases, and lifetime health care for selves and family. So, after working for about 20 years, they retire on immediate full benefits that will likely be paid for another 40 years, maybe longer, and even while they move on to other high-paid jobs.
Anytime anyone complains about this the NYFD and NYPD start screaming things like "We are the HEROES of 9/111" "We are keeping our country FREE from terrorists." Politicians won't go near it, too afraid of being dissed by uniformed services and being accused of being "unpatriotic."
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@ellienyc
FDNY runs towards danger every minute of everyday. Frankly, no Firefighter earns enough in my book. Ask the citizens of California.
2
@John - I don’t know what government employees you know, but my government employee parents didn’t retire until their 60s, and when each was 52, they were still working: I was in school, and they still had a mortgage payment. Retirement at that stage of the game was not a financial option.
Since retiring, I regret to inform you that they have not been collecting their gold-plated pensions on their boat in Florida. Rather, they’re still in their home of 30 years, which they’ve meticulously maintained while battling three cancers between them, managing my father’s pancreatitis-induced diabetes and other chronic health conditions that struck him out of the blue, caring for my frail elderly grandmother, handling her funeral, and managing the care of a difficult and profoundly mentally ill relative until they just couldn’t do it anymore and another family member - also a retired government employee, by the way - took over. I’m sure my parents, particularly my mother as she did much of the heavy lifting with this tragically mentally ill relative, would like a boat in Florida right about now. Take your misguided judgements on government employees and shove them.
7
We are surprised that the NYT adopts a neoliberal ideological stance when writing about the rising tide of middle-class bankruptcies. While certainly poor decision-making on the part of families is partly to blame, it would have been appropriate to point also to fundamental changes in our economy since about the 70s that place pressure on the middle class in ways not felt by wealthier families who have prospered disproportionately and have used wealth to push their elitist preferences into the public agenda. For example, while wages for ordinary workers have stagnated, to join the middle class or maintain middle-class status, workers face increasing higher education costs for themselves and their children because states have drastically reduced funding for public higher education, and they have endured increased housing costs in metropolitan areas where higher-paying jobs and educational opportunities are concentrated. At the same time, republican administrations have coddled the wealthy, giving them more influence over government by loosening campaign funding rules and through tax breaks and reductions in capital-gains taxes that differentially benefit wealthy families and corporations.
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I'm a bit perplexed by all of the comments advocating "Medicare for all" as some sort of solution to the problem. This article is concerned with the dire financial straits of those who are over 65, and therefore are *already* eligible for Medicare. Am I missing something here?
9
Yes, you are missing the part where medical bills ate up their savings which is why these people are bankrupt. In a system with universal healthcare that wouldn’t happen.
24
@C Fig When something is free, you get exactly what you pay for, progtard.
@Shawn Part of problem w/Medicare is it is paying less & less by placing limitations & new rules on old benefits (for example, cutting back, thru various rules, on how much outpatient physical therapy it covers or whether or for how long it covers home care folowing hospitalization). I noticed this comparing what it paid on behalf of my late stepfather 25 years ago w/what it paid on behalf of my late mother 10-15 years ago & what it pays for me right now. Some benefits, tho technically still covered by Medicare, have practically disappeared. So Medicare recipients are having to dig further into their pockets to cover things Medicare doesn't.. The costs of many medications are going up too & Medicare Part D plans (the drug plans) are often not covering them.
Also note that while Social Security benefits technically have a cost of living increase, in recent years it has been either nonexistent or tiny -- doesn't even come close to covering increased costs of typical senior. I have seen 20% increases in cost of some foods at my supermarket, not to mention 20% increases in cost of dental care (& Medicare pays nothing for dental care) & other health care expenses not covered by Medicare.I don't know ANY health care providers who increase fees only .25% or even 1% a year, like SS increases.(Would love to see tax credit for srs. for medical expenses above certain level).
Not hard for me to see how someone with a lot of these expenses & little savings could run into trouble
5
I wonder if our national legislators read anything that so keenly and concisely summarizes our predicament? (I know our president would not.). I wonder how many could not care less? (I know our president could not.)
12
yes, I'm old too and retired and, no, I'm not smart but learning from mistakes. You have mortgage at age of 70? Why?--resolution?--walk away, downgrade, move to cheaper area--do something even if it wrong. Yes, Medicare cost 700$ a month--resolution--fly to Thailand and get help there. Yes, I have internet and do research--and stop complaining.
Yes, I still paying taxes and never complain.
9
@alexferdman Medicare does NOT cost $700 a month. Unless you're in the higher income brackets, at his age it would be about $134 a month. And even if you are in the top bracket it doesn't cost $700
9
@alexferdman Why is complaining the enemy? Some complaints are valid and create awareness around a problem.
12
@alexferdman ... You don't complain about the airline food on flights to Thailand?
4
Roll back all of the Trump and Bush tax cuts on every dollar of taxable income over $250K; institute universal health coverage, a la UK; tax carried interest as ordinary income (no more bailouts for billionaires); then roll drug coverage, along with ability to negotiate prices, into standard Medicare. No more donut hole. I also think we need to roll back all full retirement ages to 64 or even 60 - give the young ones room in the management ranks.
Problems solved. including the deficit.
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@Carol Excellent ideas. Now all we have to do is get Congress to approve it....95% of whom all make over that 250K, thus taxing themselves. Being as most are also heavily invested in the wildly profitable healthcare and insurance industries....I'm sure they will also rush to pass universal healthcare too.
6
Thanks for the article and calling attention to how our society treats our elderly and disabled. I am a strong supporter of the Social Security Insurance and Health Insurance program.
The main reason I support this program is, taken from my professional research in a public policy capacity, life was pretty mean and brutish prior to the enactment of the social insurance program and after its enactment, during the Depression, the well being of the American people improved. This history demonstrated that there was strong opposition from Republicans and support from the Democrats for a very long time before it was adopted, it was a very long political struggle even though it made sense from a general welfare standpoint.
To me, Social Security and Medicare, are the principal reasons that people should vote for Democrats. It is the one good reason.
Can it be improved? Yes, by applying the payroll tax to all levels of income. If this is done by eliminating the "cap" on payroll deductions the Trust Fund will receive a lot more funds and eventually, may be able to reduce the tax rate.
I am still evaluating the best way to improve our health care system but I am leaning toward Medicare-for-all. This would reduce the administrative cost of insurance and would provide the data that can be used to improve the healthcare.
I am 81, and I am privileged to be able to continue working, albeit, in a lower paying job, but it a rare privilege and I still pay FICA from my paycheck.
37
It's neither accurate nor fair to apply a "too little, too late" headline to folks whose pensions, savings or health care benefits have been wiped out by hostile corporate maneuvering, bad faith fund or pension management, and legal machinations to "re-eligiblize" people out of the programs they worked to secure.
especially folks in blue collar and trade professions whose lifetime of hard work never put them within reach of the "big bucks" -- i mean the kind of wealth that the folks responsible for the mismanagement, machinations and takeovers will certainly secure for themselves.
24
3 problems:
Medicare donut hole- most cannot afford this
Medicare not means tested
Social security not means tested.
Sorry folks, that means some of us won't get the benefits that we paid for. But we cannot sustain the status quo. And by the way, single payer is not a panacea. Just ask any veteran at the VA.
2
Sorry but the VA is an entity all on its own. Medicare and Medicaid work exceptionally well. One cannot use the VA as a prime example of single-payer healthcare.
43
@Susan The VA does not administer Universal Healthcare. It doles out healthcare depending upon how much money congress has allotted in any given year.
Universal Healthcare is a national commitment to care for every citizen - if the U.S. had Universal Healthcare the V.A. would not be necessary.
8
The VA is a government run, government paid for healthcare system. How different would "single payer" be in 20 years???
anti-communitarian capitalist free fire zones look just like this, people left to their own devices, blamed for not being wealthy, educated enough or healthy enough. This is dystopian and it's happening now, this article explores one particular symptom. It will only get worse.
19
This is what Social Security was invented to prevent. We are going backwards because of poor legislative policy.
51
@MN Or successful legislative policy. Which is how the republicans see it.
3
When Social Security was created, 17 workers supported each retiree, now there is less than 3. Everyday 10,000 boomers reach retirement age (65), and will continue everyday for the next 19 years. Both Medicare and Social Security presently have tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities and growing. In 2016, public employee pension systems were $4.8 trillion in debt. Some claim abolishing ICE and letting millions more immigrants in will help. But recent studies show the average immigrant household collects 33 percent more cash welfare, 57 percent more food assistance, and 44 percent more in Medicaid dollars than the average U.S. household. Taking every dime U.S. billionaires have will not touch this. Calling on the same government to fix their creation makes no sense, we are on our own.
7
@Rick Schweikert
Eliminate the $125,000 cap on deduction.
Problem solved....
23
@Rick Schweikert Where did you get your numbers on immigrants use of welfare? They are I believe wildly inaccurate propagands by the anti immigrant crowd
12
I'm surprised by some of the self-righteous comments suggesting that financial problems faced by situation older people being their own fault.
Every situation is different, but many of the people having these issues worked their entire lives and probably saved what they could. But the world keeps changing, medical bills have soared, drug prices are artificially high in many cases, people have family emergencies, children need help with college -- the list goes on and on.
Many people never had the opportunity to make a lot of money. Its important to stop judging and thinking about ways to help this population group.
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@Darcy people also have choices in life. Many choices made in our youth we end paying for the rest of our lives. Compare this with college entrance exams in countries with “free” college. Here we allow you to waste as much money as you want on your education-no matter your aptitude or intelligence. My Foreign born Uber driver told me he came here 5 years ago with nothing-he now has 10 cars that he leases to friends and family and they all make good money-his term.
I was gobsmacked by the graphs, unremarked in the article, showing a dramatic drop in under-45 bankruptcies. If this means the younger generations are learning the hard lessons of the older, perhaps there's hope for the future old folks.
10
The younger generations are not buying as many houses as previous generations, are eschewing large vehicles, and have opted out from having children.
8
@Steve Hyde. ...it's because they are living at home w/ their parents due to their high student loan fees, poor jobs and they can't afford to marry and get a home....so no bankruptcies for them.
7
As the old saying goes, you judge a country by the way it treats it's most vulnerable (children and elderly, for example). And I don't think America fares very well in that category.
74
High health care and prescription drug costs are certainly responsible for many of the bankruptcies of Americans - both old and young. Those costs are out of the control of the average person. A significant contributing factor that is within our control is financial illiteracy, and that illiteracy also contributes to voting against our best interests. Too many do not understand the ramifications of fiscal policies on their own lives.
It is painful to read of seniors using credit cards (at their usurious interest rates) for basic living expenses, and we have to wonder if those who retired to Las Vegas did so for the gambling. Buying more house or a fancier car than one needs or can afford simply for pride, especially in one's later years. Having a good time rather than paying the bills...
Financial illiteracy is not limited to lower income levels. Based on his financial history, it is likely that 45 would be insolvent if others were not managing his money. And Kavanaugh and some members of Congress do not seem very adept at managing their own money.
20
@Dee I think most of the people, especially seniors, that move to Las Vegas due so for the warm climate and the fact the state has no income tax due to the revenues from gambling. Additionally, real estate is more affordable than in neighboring California.
6
How much worse do things have to get before America has a serious conversation about single payer? The time has come and the Democrats could win on a "Medicare for All" platform.
58
@BassGuyGG - This article concerns people who are *already* eligible for Medicare. How exactly would "Medicare for all" improve this situation?
3
@BassGuyGG single payer is wonderful. All we need to do is convince the Doctors, hospitals, and drug companies to take 40% less. We will also need to convince those with good insurance to accept less health care for money (many union members) and double taxes on individuals and businesses.
2
The real truth and bottom line is that health care in this country is ridiculously expensive, and older people get sicker and can't afford these costs. You can blame them all you want for not saving, but on a smaller income and rising costs of everything, it is almost impossible. And the insurance companies love to deny their customers claims. Don't judge most of these people. You never know what life will bring.
We need universal healthcare, period. All the civilized countries and even many 3rd world countries have that. People shouldnt go broke to pay for their healthcare! But the rich pharmas and biotechs keep raking in the dough...
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@Carmen This article has nothing to do with uiversal healthecare. The retiree already has it!!!! The statement thqat his healthcare was cancelled is a real head-scratcher
1
Awful.
What kind of world are we creating for ourselves? And why are people so mind-bogglingly stupid that they vote for Republican politicians?
93
@Josh Hill so many people think they're just temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Or, they focus on issues like abortion and illegal immigration, which have little if any direct impacts on their lives, at the expense of issues that clearly do.
18
I know what you mean. I know of two people who are on disability and food stamps yet vote republican. Why? One is convinced that his situation is temporary (its been 15 years) and when he makes it big he doesn’t want to pay taxes. The other votes for “pro life” candidates to the exclusion of other issues. Sigh.
9
My husband laid off in 2008 from a company he worked for 28 and half years.Despite a relentless job search,was not hired until 4 years later,the kicker he had to live away from home M-F.We couldn't move,as my job was bringing in the biggest pay check.He was able to move back home 4 years ago.I had to leave my job at age 60,because of reoccurring shoulder and back injures,hospital RN.We put 13% of both of our salaries into our 401K accounts starting in our 30's.I started saving for college when each of our sons born.Despite their great academic awards,still cost $250,00,I had saved $60 thousand.Our vacations were road trips, and museum passes from the library.We did everything right,yet my husband now almost 65,continues to work as an electrical lineman,a grueling physical job.He jokes he will be "retiring" feet first.We have saved $600,000 in our 401ks,but we feel we are 1 horrible medical diagnoses,or an accident away from poverty.We had considered moving to Canada in 1992.We both regret we didn't.
147
Our neighbours 'got out' (their words) of America about twenty years ago. They are now Canadian citizens, vote and pay taxes. They say the longer they are in Canada the wiser their decision to get out of America seems.
We have our issues here, and Canada is not perfect, but I cannot imagine what living with all this anger and tension in the United States must feel like. Do take the criticism of our universal health coverage with a large grain of salt. Not perfect, in the same way that the NHS in the UK is not perfect, but single payer is kinder and more respectful for all.
A while back to CBC reported on how much Big Pharma spends in America to trash talk our Canadian universal coverage. Too much money still to be made by America's Big Pharma so they do not have a desire for Americans to receive universal coverage.
Retirement age is 60 here. We welcome legal immigration, so do consider, Nora, if you and yours are still inclined.
15
I am a single woman with no kids who has saved over 1 million in retirement. Yet I know I am one serious illness away from losing it all. Doing Single payer can’t come fast enough.
10
@MKS: you can retire any time you like, but you won’t get Canadian SS equivalent at 60! That is simply NOT TRUE. And our Medicare is very similar to Canadian single payer! So while younger American workers may have legit complaints…Americans over 65 DO NOT. They have pretty close to the same deal.
On top of that: NO YOU CANNOT “just immigrate to Canada” and shame on you for misleading people. Canada has very strict immigration laws, that would prevent almost all Americans from moving there if they even wanted to do so – a points system, PLUS you must be UNDER 45!!!! They will NOT accept applications for immigration from oldsters – why would Canada want to give out freebie health care or retirement checks to bunch of Americans who never worked nor paid taxes there?
I think the study was incomplete as it "does not delve into underlying factors." Perhaps one of the underling factors has been the lack of personal responsibility of keeping their finances in order throughout their lives. Living beyond their means, not planning for the future, and co-signing student loans for their children and grandchildren may be the major underlying factors.
The most important thing to enjoy a secured retirement is not the money you have made, but the money you have saved.
In most cases they should not blame others; they should blame themselves!
11
@Jorge D. Fraga Sr. Surprising as it may seem, many boomers had their own student loans -- mine totaled more than $50,000 more than 35 years ago (and were repaid), took care of "Greatest Generation" parents and/or have ended up with millenial children lacking independence.
15
@Jorge D. Fraga Sr. While I understand how you could feel that way, I recognize in my own life how a small change here or there could have put me in the place that some of these folks are in, even with all the planning in the world. And it's still not over.
I'm sure that there are people who failed to plan, but there are also those mentioned in the article, who took on grandchildren to raise, or had a "double pack of 12 foot drywall fall on his head." That man was in his forties at that time. He thought that he had insurance. Seems to me that he planned as much as he could. Now he has Parkinson's. Meds that used to be covered by insurance are an out-of-pocket expense at an extraordinary cost. His wife has cancer. What did he fail to do? Why should we tell him to blame himself. You say in most cases its failure to plan, and you might tell me that I'm showcasing an outlier, but perhaps that is incorrect. Neither of us know.
I'm sure you're a good guy, but I'd encourage both of us to take just a moment to have some compassion. It's more comforting to think that it couldn't happen to us, but life can hit awfully hard sometimes.
51
Thanks, Dad. Not saying you're entirely wrong but catastrophic medical expenses at any age are not something you can plan for. When we pay into Social Security all our working lives, it's with the understanding that our money will be coming back to us. Or was. It's easier to put personal money aside when you have enough of it to finance two parts of your life: now and later. I find that many people who dismiss seniors' financial struggles are quite smug about their affluence.
31
I am at the end of the boomers. I have been underemployed all my working years because people retired later and now it's easier to hire someone younger. I don't expect to retire. I am not alone. I need the excellent insurance my employer provides to cover my husband's medical expenses. We already used his retirement savings to keep my mother in law in the nursing home. I have had 2 jobs nearly all of my life as well. My husband's medications cost $6k per month, for generic.
50
@Sarah A I think this is true for many people. Whether people used their actual savings for their parents or sacrificed work opportunities (or their actual jobs) taking care of parents, this has been a bg factor for many including me.
While my medications aren't as much as yours, my dental expenses have been. Further Medicare has been paying less and less for some care and finding more & more reasons not to pay anything at all when I compare my late stepfather's experience 25 yrs ago w/my late mother's 10-15 yrs ago w/mine right now. All older people should work as long as they can if they have a good corporate health plan, as Medicare is garbage compared to it.
17
@Sarah A I know you don't expect to retire, but I hope you're doing something, anything, to plan for it, because you may find that you are forced into retirement.
6
I’m sorry to pass on information that seems harsh, but this “surge” coincides with the retirement of the baby boomer generation. This generation has proportionally saved the least for its own retirement and will either reap the rewards of its profligate spending or try to use the government to keep the spending going. I’m afraid that I cannot have much sympathy for a generation that is so self-centered that they expect the rest of us to pick up their tab. As a gen-x, I expect to receive no help whatsoever from SS. It will be long bankrupt after these folks have bled it dry trying to pass on an even bigger bill to future generations than they already have.
18
@Sad Citation, please, of authority for your claim boomer generation "has proportionally saved the least for its own retirement?"
6
@Sad
Way to do the bidding of the billionaires that want to do away with social security.
It is embarrassing how much my generation falls for the "social security won't be there" line.
5
I'm sorry to pass this information on to you, but you and your loved ones are not immune from unforeseen catastrophic or even just very expensive unexpected outlays. Medical, obviously, but also job loss or other situations that require going into your savings, elder parent care... on and on. Got humility?
30
The reality of globalization and the transfer of risk from a company to an individual are now here.
The risk transfer consequences now present and expose that without safeguards for the events and circumstances that are likely to present over the course of a life, disability, chronic illness or conditions, loss of employment, care giving responsibilities, et al. certain people are devastated emotionally and financially.
However, certain segments, police and military are granted extraordinary and desirable safety nets for health care, pension and disability. Other segments, self employed individuals in service occupations and a range of corporate employees lack the same safeguards.
It is not sad, it is the exercise of the demons of the power elements in society.
18
@Dale C Korpi Yes, it always amuses me both (1) how readily taxpayers are willing to cough up for lifetime unreduced pensions starting in early 40s for cops and firefighters and well as lifetime free healthcare for them & families, and even though many, if not most, go on to hi-paid careers elsewhere and (2) how adeptly cops, firefighters, military, etc. manipulate people by chanting "Remember 9/11; remember our fallen heroes!"
8
@ellienyc-Let's not forget the obscene pensions and perks politicians get when they retire.
2
@jilikins
Indeed, there is also another aspect that is under the radar. Governmental units from the several States on down can "elect" to not cover employees under Social Security because they have a pension plan at that state level.
However, the benefit package, in the main survivor and disability provisions in Social Security, s not present in the state pension plans.
It is another gap in the social safety net that affects innocent dependents and the employees.
It's easy to point fingers and say, well they didn't save enough or they didn't make wise financial decisions. But at some point, we have to acknowledge normal human behavior in decision making. If most people don't save enough for retirement, or too easily fall for too-easy-to-get credit, then maybe we need to rethink our approach. I save a LOT each month for retirement and college savings for my kids. We could instead provide all those things and raise taxes--so now I'm paying a lot more in taxes but don't need to save for retirement or college. And everyone is doing the same, and is being "forced" to pay into their retirement and kids' colleges. Stop pretending it's realistic for everyone to be savers--there's a human element in decision-making that needs to be accepted.
44
I just turned 65 and have MEDICARE and some AARP United Healthcare supplemental policy. I don’t really understand all this and I haven’t been to a doctor in 15 years, always fearing the precondition trap. Am I safe ?
3
@New World
Regular Medicare plus a good supplement like plan f will cover you without any traps except for prescriptions. All the Part D plans have traps. It's impossible to be "safe" on the drug front in this country unless you're wealthy. And as you already know, Part B is $134, Plan f is $120-$150, and Part D can easily be over $100 and you'll still have the drug co-pays.
Medicare Advantage plans are cheaper, but traps abound in the form of restrictive and unpredictable networks.
6
First of all, nobody really understands all the aspects of their health insurance, that's just normal. I've been on Medicare for about 4 years and it is, in many ways, the best insurance to have. There are no preexisting condition clauses to worry about, I can seek care in any state in the country not just my local area, and most doctors and hospitals, etc know how to work with Medicare. Where I live, most all of those medical facilities accept Medicare, too (and are probably happy to be getting paid).
And, by the way, don't take my word for it! Yeah, do some more homework for information about how your Medicare and supplemental plan work. Talk to friends, your local hospital might offer classes in such things. Oh, and make an appointment with a general practitioner for a Welcome to Medicare visit. It will be free and will give you an introduction to a new doctor who can maybe help you get started on a healthier, less-worrisome path. But don't take my word for it!
8
Medicare: Part A. Part B.
1. Still working for an institution providing health insurance? If so, you likley don't need A supplement or use Medicare Part B at present. But keep a record of your employer health isurance & report it when you file your Federal Tax return. There's a penalty if you file for Medicare late and haven't been either insured prior to filing, or in a long term care facility.
2. You automatically qualify for Medicare Part A and should file for Part A asap if you haven't already. Otherwise you'll pay a penalty. Part A only covers cost of being in hospital and part of a medically necessary stay in Post Hospital Rehab. Part A doesn't cover any Attending Physician or specialized services in the hospital - that's usually covered under Part B. B Also coveres Dr office visits.
3. Original, Traditional Medicare A or B doesn't cover Dental, Vision or Hearing Aids. And that which it does cover is about about 80%.
4.There are many, many Medicare Supplements such as the one mentioned. Some are great. Some worthless. Read & reread the Supplement Policy a few times to determine if it meets your needs. For example, does it cover co-pays for other health expenses? - like prescriptions, Dr visits? Does it have a Vision / Dental plan?
4. Do this several times over the course of several weeks. And only when you're in a calm state. Some unions / professional organizations may have outreach to you help make sense of it all.
see also www.medicare.gov
6
I had a conversation with a relative recently who said it's a new world -- that deficits don't matter, that Apple and Amazon and Google and the rest can double or triple in price. Just a new "this time it's different" speech. He's over 70 and has pretty much all his net worth tied up in the stock markets. So many people today seem to feel that investing in U.S. equities is risk-free, even with a madman as our president and our deficit at $20 trillion and counting to the tune of another $1 trillion a year. The coming crash will make 2008 look like a blip. And the smug posters here with their fat 401-K balances will discover that wealth can be very, very fleeting.
34
For all who think medicare for all is a good idea, let's look at how medicare actually works for those who have it, including needing most of their social security income to pay for it.
10
@David
medicare part b cost $134 per month. on top of that you have to find a plan that meets your needs and a physician that accepts your plan.
the difference between medicare and my employer group insurance was about $200 per month. but I can see any doctor any where of my choosing.
3
@David: Obviously you do not believe health care should be available to US citizens unless they have money? For those making $85,000 and less, medicare costs about $135 a month. If this takes "most of their social security income to pay for it," then that person is dirt poor! Why not medicare for everyone and then require that they purchase supplemental insurance or prove they have assets to pay the 25% not paid by Medicare?
5
@David I say "be careful what you wish for" when someone says "Medicare for all." What we need for all is the national Blue Cross plan that covers members of Congress and many federal employees, their dental plan, and their defined benefit pension plan.
5
80 years ago, pre-social-security, retirement involved getting old, having one of your children take care of you in the same household, then dying of whatever illness eventually came to you. Chances are there was no extended medical care, you just got sick, old, and died of "natural causes".
We now care for elderly for quite sometime. Modern health insurance cost sharing can cover medication, trips to doctors, and ongoing basic coverage. But when elderly require extensive coverage involving tens of thousands of dollars for a single old-age related treatment, or simply a $10000/mo nursing home bill for someone that can't care for themself, we can't expect elderly to be able to pay.
We as a society need to figure out how we care for our elderly, and how we can best pay for that. The majority of us won't have a $1,000,000 to pay for the last 5 years of our life's medical issues. We're all going to be old one day.
43
American's haven't seen an increase in the Federal minimum wage since 2009. As a result, a business can employ an older person at $8.75 an hour -- a sub-minimum wage that is insufficient to maintain a bare minimum living. If the minimum wage had kept up with inflation, it would be more than $11 per hour today.
33
Many jobs are advertised locally at a starting wage of $13 to $18 per hour -- no experience needed. The problem is finding employees who can pass the drug test, do not have a criminal record, and who show up for work everyday and on time.
3
@Robert Winchester Where is that? Not in the suburbs of Chicago where I live.
The woman in Vegas makes $18K a year assuming she works full time. That's before taxes. If this is the future...
19
My parents drove around in a Buick, although they could have had a Mercedes Benz like their neighbors.
They replaced expensive appliances when they wore out, not when a new one with more "features" was available, unlike their neighbors.
They didn't live in a "McMansion," like their neighbors.
When the husband of one their neighbors, who drove a Benz and lived in a 5 bedroom home with three fireplaces, died, his wife came to my father in tears: she needed a loan to make the mortgage payment.
My parents died with over a million in the bank. Most people don't. But too many of them are hypnotized into believing that the more junk you own, the happier you will be.
53
@george eliot What you say refers to by gone days. And is rife with judgement.
16
@george eliot
Same general area, parents same plan.
But GI Bill was critical.
And despite highest education, the story not longer is true.
1
The countries with universal already have a VAT. I would be glad to vote for instituting a VAT and improving health care.
16
@Juanita K.
A VAT might make sense, though a European style VAT - Denmark = 25% including on food - can also be viewed as a whopping regressive tax. VAT can also act as a brake on consumption which might be good, for example, for the environment.
7
@Juanita K. And the countries with universal healthcare also often provide some type of inhome or institutionalized elder care, which is good, because they also don't generally engage in all the exceptional, over the top medical care we do for people in thier 70s and 80s.
8
Our system is not broken.
The system is serving us well, except for those danged taxes that drain our own bank accounts, and government regulations that strangle business and destroy jobs, and the remnants of those evil unions that sap our nation of its strength...
This is the system that conservatives have always wanted. Well, not quite. They want even less of a system. But it's working out the way they've always envisioned.
Privatize everything, because the free market is more efficient. Oh, but we forgot to mention, also completely lacking in morals or social conscience or fairness.
Eliminate entitlements, because people do better when they stand on their own two feet. Oh, that is, until they are struck by calamity, or illness, or old age, or just plain bad luck.
But "Jobs, jobs, jobs!" Which are great, until you are too old to work. Or you work in an industry that advancing technology consigns to the dustbin, leaving you with no marketable skills. Or you become disabled or too ill or too burdened by obligations (to spouse or family) to have the time to earn a decent wage.
And "Freedom!" Which is great when you have the youth and the money to enjoy it. But you are only truly free if you are free of obligations and anxiety, by having the money, youth and good health to manage all of life's obstacles with ease.
The system is not broken. The system is working as intended. As we as voters have asked. The system is simply morally and socially bankrupt.
85
As Janis Joplin so forcefully said as she sang Me an Bobby McGee: "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."
Far truer today than in the 70s.
13
@Bob I agree -- it's our fellow voters to bame for much of this. Just as we should spend at least as much time excoriating people who voted for Trump as we spend excoriating Trump, we need to excoriate the people always voting to lower taxes (even if what they thought they were really voting for was "freedom," "morality," or "security against terrorists").
5
@Bob Life is hard. You want a world in which life isn't, but that's not how life is, ever has been, nor ever will be. Your utopia will arrive with death like the religious have told us forever... Or you will be a lucky person who doesn't suffer these things. History is real even if you wish your history could match the fun you see on TV.
2
The article could have done better job of tracking how these individuals reached these situations. Did they think about carrying a mortgage that they could not cover while the sellers’ market is on fire? Co-signing a student loan for $20,000 caused a problem while their supposedly working age children are where? Every one of these people are over 65 and presumably on Medicare? What are the overwhelming health costs? Was it a lack of 401K or mismanagement of 401K that caused the problem? Did their company even offer a pension? Many firms do not.
Why is this situation unexpected where a substantial majority of adults cannot correctly answer the simplest questions on financial management? You have to understand your finances in 21st Century to have a decent retirement. Bad things happen to good people. Life is tough. It is even tougher when you do not make intelligent decisions. That is the same as running a track race with ankle weights.
11
@Michael Blazin At least one got divorced, which of course is a financial catastrophe as you have two households to care for instead of one.
2
My in-laws, who love President Trump and consistently vote Republican, are well past the age that most people retire yet haven't because they can't afford to. If they did stop working they too would be filling for bankruptcy.
32
@KW
We need a lot more folks like your in-laws, who understand that it is their responsibility to provide for themselves, not freeload off everyone else.
Social Security was designed to assist, not cover, a small sliver of the population, for about two years prior to their demise, and the ratio of paychecks to retirees was quite healthy. Today, the average beneficiary might live 20 or more years, and there are far fewer working folks paying in; the numbers don't square.
Retiring at 65 is simply unrealistic and premature for most people, especially those who fail to plan for their longevity.
4
@Rob There are those who cannot provide for themselves. In your tidy little world everyone is young, able bodied, etc. Social security needs to be expanded to meet today's needs...as you point out.
1
@Lillies, today's "NEEDS" are yesterday's "wants" How much of the problem is the expansion of people's idea of what they need???
I could live on today's social security no problem. Of course I'm not saddled with debt from paying to send children to high priced private schools or borrowing to have multiple expensive cars, etc, etc, etc
The problems outlined in this article are non-partisan. 40+ years of cost-of-living increases (homes, education, cars) and stagnant wage; considerably longer lifetimes; and the disappearance of pensions has been financially crippling for many old people and both parties have contributed to this. Political leadership needs to recalibrate markets for modern American expenses, be they red or blue.
25
The current government administration never reached out to seniors yet a large number of us voted it in. If Elizabeth Warren were in charge she would be looking for solutions to this little bankruptcy epidemic. To seniors who voted against your own interests: You are on your own!
28
Elizabeth Warren was not a choice on my ballot.
2
The medical industrial complex will continue to bankrupt Americans who can't afford their drugs or health care costs. The US could figure this out, as most all other countries have done, but not with the obstruction in Congress.
33
Through the years, I have read that my generation, the Boomers, have not saved as our parents who lived through the Depression did. We wanted to have it all, the shiny cars, boats, etc., etc. And most of us, did not learn how to save. Add this to the lack of universal healthcare which all first world countries have, and we....have a disaster!
The answer is so simple it is ridiculous:
1. Cut the hugely inflated Military budget in half.
2. Give that money to fund Medicare for ALL. You pay what you can afford according to your income. Don't have much income? It's free. This isn't socialism its....compassion!
3. END the war in Afghanistan! That will bring another trillion to our coffers!
4. Raise taxes for the 1% of the wealthiest Americans.
Doesn't take a genius to see, that people are suffering needlessly because of the greed of a few!
And....vote! The Republicans would like to CUT Medicare and get rid of Social Security!
Wake up!
173
@Mari Your generation, the Boomers, have created all of those issues.
2
And who is to blame for these destructive cost-shifting policies? Who are the greedy ones, the radical individualists? I think we know. If they are allowed to continue unchecked, it will get much worse.
10
I hate to say this for fear that financial difficulties may yet befall me, but the 65 generation are entirely responsible for the retirement problem. They are the ones who voted in Ronald Reagan and celebrated a new morning in America, a city shining on a hill. They are the ones responsible for redefining Americans as “consumers” rather than “citizens.”
All the vile changes driving them into bankruptcy happened on their watch.
19
@Myron Jaworsky the blaming is unproductive...I support the public sector and rather abruptly because elitist. I don't believe those values are obsolete. I believe it is the likes of those like the heritage foundation that have tipped it over. Kochites and the base are people that I would never have embraced.
5
Re: barbara
I disagree: assigning blame is the cleanest path to a possible solution. It is the counterpoint to “accepting responsibility” or “acknowledging one’s accountability.”
How many people facing retirement difficulties will STILL vote for Trump?
2
Well here’s one baby boomer who never voted republican.
8
And here we see, yet again, the moral bankruptcy (pun intended) of conservatives.
21
Get ready for this to all get a whole lot worse. As the Republicans, backed and funded by the Koch brothers and other right-wing conservatives, continue marching forward to their nirvana of small government, any resemblance of a safety net will be completely gone.
The massive tax scam handout to the 1% was the big major effort towards accomplishing this goal; starve the federal government of revenues, and let the cuts begin. I truly fear for the dystopian society these evil doers are foisting on all of us so they can continue to build their fortresses of wealth,
30
They are a sacrifice we're going to have to make in order to make sure that billionaires get the welfare they so richly deserve.
21
The plan seems to be working as intended:
After making your life and savings next to impossible just die, and to so without costing me any extra money.
14
I would only hope that if a double pack of 12-foot drywall fell on my head that that would be it.
15
I worked long enough with local government unions to qualify for lifetime medical benefits, which I'd hope to use to supplement Medicare. But lawdy--that info on the carpenter whose union changed his eligibility for medical benefits scared the bejesus out of me. All of us retirees have to be concerned that the millenials of today could vote in the future to cut us out--and we'd be nearly hopeless to do anything. Keep saving...exercise...and eat healthfully.
14
The great risk shift was started by ronnie and his cronies. It has gotten worse with little hope in sight.
25
If we're going to preach the gospel of individuality, there will be winners and losers. These are the losers. There are winners, too--boomers who rode the wave of prosperity and made millions off their real estate, etc. Or even the ones, like my parents, who lived frugally and saved incrementally and now have a comfortable retirement.
I don't think we can have it both ways--we either glorify the individual, and let those who can't hack it starve, or we build a society.
My vote is, and has always been, for a society, but in America I'm often the lone dissenting voice in the room.
28
Most people -=- including the highly educated -- are financially illiterate....The loss of employer provided pensions and making everyone their own financial advisor is almost guaranteed to result in people having no money when they stop working. If we are going to force everyone to depend on 401(k)'s and SEP programs -- we also better provide some help for those investments, at least on the low income/asset side. We also need to do something about the trillion dollar student loan debt problem....It's clearly drowning many young people...and their parents and grandparents, too...
27
@Vicki Investment advice isn't the problem. People just don't save enough.
6
On $8.75 an hour they CAN'T save enough.
2
Jobs paying much more are available and no experience is necessary. But you have to look for them and not be lazy or complacent.
The poor are not "takers" nor are they the "losers". They are the ones who have raised children, lived by the rules, paid taxes, died for our country and are now treated as the disposables that wealthy seem to have always believed they were.
85
Sad to imaging what people have to go thru at that age.
Coming from a joint family , i see such a lack of family support in the ageing population. Many of them have not seen or heard from their kids.
Also my father immigrated 4 years back to USA , and at 70 years , has medicare , a good welfare paychek and perks. In his home country he never visited doctors unless needed , here i see his life circulate around various doctor visits , tests , pharmacy etc in addition to disposable monthly check. Healthcare has become his lifestyle.
Now he is advocating all his elderly friends to come over to US. Legal or illegal it is a happy and happening place for them.
And then we hear this story....
1
My husband and I are reaching retirement age with some debt and a good bit of savings. His health issues have ravaged our finances, but we always managed to save roughly 15% of our salaries. In the time since we have been saving (I was maybe 28 and I'm 62), we have saved almost $800K and have $130K in equity in our home. And $40K in business debt. If the roughly 15% of my and my employers money had been available to invest, we would now have close to $1.6M in savings, and not have politicians working their hardest to take that away. If I live to be 80 years old and retire at 66.5 years, I will get a total of $440K. I don't begrudge helping others in retirement who may not have made as much as I did, but I do begrudge the Republican party wanting to take away what I have worked for, and should be given to me without implying that I don't deserve it.
17
Where are Biden, Booker, Sanders, Warren and the like. Are still with their heads in the sand. Duh! how do we cash on these demographics. I don't know what will it take for anyone with a half a brain to reverse engineer their 2020 campaign around this information. It is a no brainer folks.
4
Unfortunately between student loans and the cost of living it will only get worse. Amazing how today civil servants in places like NY make out like bandits with great medical coverage, salaries and fat pensions.
Big problem is medical issues that OBama care created. Plus cost of medicine for that one guy going from seventy dollars a month to over a thousand. OUCH!!! Blame his union which many times are down right evil. This guy no longer part of the work force so union does NOT care.
3
I hope I live long enough for health problems...this last divorce bankrupted me.
4
My shelf life is 85. If I am not dead by then, I am drinking the Kool Aid.
11
@NYC Dweller One of my favorite movies, Harold and Maude, captured this perfectly.
6
Reading these comments is pure comedy. "It's all the republicans fault!" seems the common refrain. Maybe you should put your partisan hat down for a minute and understand things like economics and a changing demographic. These older folks grew up in a time when a High School diploma got you a good blue collar job... but alas thanks to the globalists like Clinton (NAFTA, H1-B's) shipped them off to Mexico and China. Grow up folks and take some responsibility. If anyone seriously though Social Security was going to be enough you're just not bright. And how about those premiums for Medicare? Affordable? Hardly.
8
@Rob Stweart, Clinton did sign NAFTA, and was a globalist. But to be clear, NAFTA was a republican idea, promoted by Reagan, Bush I, and republican members of congress and senate. Same for deregulation of financial derivatives (you remember, it's how republicans try to pin blame for the great recession on dems). These were republican agendas. If it were up to the democrats, social security would be strengthened, and we'd have a single payer system, which would alleviate poverty, and probably save money given the amount of GDP healthcare eats up. If it were up to republicans, there would be no social security--or it would be privatized so we can all live equally in poverty. Oh, and any semblance of help for the poor, you could kiss that goodbye. You are correct, it's not purely the republicans fault. But the dems error is that they don't fight hard enough for minimal help, whereas, republican error is that it's ok to let people be impoverished and suffer because they didn't "make the right decision." Or, as in many cases, they were simply born to the wrong family.
30
@Rob Stewart, I agree that the situations portrayed in this story are not the fault of the Republicans and that people must assume responsibility for their lives. That said, you are incorrect that medicare is hardy affordable! For someone reporting $85,000 annually their medicare costs are $135 a month. For an additional $100 one can purchase a supplemental policy. Like reported by Mike to your diatribe, the party pushing free trade and deregulation and allowing banks to risk their money in derivatives is the Republican party. Consumers have been inundated for decades with appeals to consume and are offered unlimited credit to keep companies and the economy growing. Then when people do as they are asked to do, they are criticized for being weak and stupid!
1
@Rob Stweart telling people in a comment chain to grow up and calling them not bright is hardly a grown up or bright thing to do.
Thas aside, I imagine that you are aware that the redistribution of income upward didn't start with NAFTA. A little thing that George HW Bush called Vodoo Economics had a lot to do with where we are now.
Unfortunately, the GOP keeps doubling down on this failed formula. The Trump tax cut for the rich being the latest version of the same old song. Meanwhile, Paul Ryan and his minions have the audacity to claim what's left of our frail safety net has to be diminished to cut the deficit that the GOP's tax policy keeps increasing. This is not difficult to understand, unfortunately too many GOP voters would rather solve for pedophile rings in pizza parlors than for their own impending doom.
1
Seniors...
NOVEMBER is just around the corner. You know what to do...
15
Until white voters who live below the top 10% stop voting GOP, it's only going to get worse for the remaining 90%. As corrupt and destructive as this administration is, it is merely a symptom of the "American Values" culture of materialism, religious and racial bigotry, and willful ignorance.
27
Reagan began the destruction of the middle class by purposely bankrupting the country. Then we keep electing people just like Reagan.
Look at the fool in the mirror.
19
@David Henry
Not me, I was Freshman ha in college, did not vote for him EVER and could see thru him easily
This is a tough country. How anyone in Congress could contemplate cuts to Social Security and Medicare is unimaginable cruelty. The reverse should be on the table, and in higher numbers to make up for the meager funds held back over previous decades. And no howls of socialism. Medicare isn't free.
23
This is why millennials and people with vision support Democratic Socialism, even though they need to find another name for it because the "socialism" part is scary to many people. This is the result of pure capitalism, and it isn't pretty.
30
Just wait till the GOP manages to reduce social security and Medicare.
15
It’s too bad if that’s what it takes to get people to stop voting against their own interests
1
When you become unemployed at age 40, 50 or 60, the first thing you 'eat on' are all those retirement benefits and savings plans you so carefully nurtured during your career (e.g. 401(K)). Then you're broke by the time you get to retirement age. Then nobody wants to hire you because you're too old.
Welcome to the 'new' economy. Retirement is a thing of the past. The 'new retirement' is to go broke, go on social security, get warehoused, live an impoverished life, and then die.
45
I grew up poor and saving is always a part of my life. I got rid of my 20 year old car last year for a used newer one. Luck, good decisions, and good investments now provide security. Young persons need to learn to save and invest. But some saving is considered inappropriate. For example, if a young man buys a low cost health insurance policy rather than Obamacare and invests the $3,000 - $4,000 yearly difference, his action is condemned by many. But by investing this money, preferably in a Roth IRA, he should have better financial security when he retires.
6
@Robert Winchester unless he gets in a car accident or gets cancer or gets heart disease by the time he's 45...in which case, he'll go bankrupt from uncovered medical expenses. Without good health insurance, you're playing Russian roulette. Everyone hopes they don't need insurance; most people eventually do.
25
@Robert Winchester Those health [plans cover next to nothing. Get sick and that young person face bankruptcy.
10
Yes the young man's pregnancy won't be covered. Most young people have few health insurance claims. That is why Obamacare insurance wants them. But Obamacare allows you to join later, after a medical problem is discovered. And you pay the same premium as someone who has been continuously covered. Medicare by contrast, charges those who join later a higher premium for life.
These stories are heartbreaking. My father lives in Japan and recently had a major (11-hour-long) surgery with a 4-week hospitalization (a combination of private and shared rooms). He is covered under the national health insurance for seniors. Upon discharge, he received an invoice for payment of his 10% share. Roughly $1,400. It makes me sick to my stomach to imagine what would have happened had he lived in the U.S.
32
@TRK And in the UK he would have received no invoice at all, at any age and taxes overall are only moderately higher than here.
7
@TRK Ironically we are the ones after WWII that set the national health service up for them. It is one of the best in world.
3
Instead of shoring up the coffers for the most vulnerable in our society, including our elderly, Trump and the GOP passed tax legislation last year giving the wealthiest and least vulnerable in our society huge tax breaks. According to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget itself, these tax cuts will add $100 billion per year to our deficit over the next decade, for a total of $1 trillion, since the tax cuts are not paying for themselves as promised.
Knowing that our elderly will grow more and more dependent on Social Security compensation, and Medicare and Medicaid funds, Trump's GOP nonetheless wants to cut their funding, in part, to pay for the shortfall caused by the tax cuts for the wealthy.
Tax policy is revenue policy. It reflects who we are and where we're going, what we value and what we don't. From where I'm standing it is clear to me that we are destroying the common good for empty promises made by "public" servants funded by the wealthy . . .
35
Thank you for this column, as I have always been against “Medicare for All” as the panacea for our lack of comprehensive universal medical care that everyone can afford. As a Progressive, it pains me that so many on my side of the fence think that Medicare for all is the answer. We need medical insurance for all that is much more comprehensive and cheaper than Medicare. I sometimes wonder if those on my side that think that Medicare is a solution have any idea just how much Medicare does not cover. Vision and Dental are just two things that you still need over 65 that Medicare does not cover at all.
18
@Sparky What we need is the national Blue Cross plan that covers members of Congress and many federal employees, including retirees, their dental & vision, and their defined benefit pension plans.
6
@Sparky I don't disagree at all. But we need to start somewhere and we need to start now! Actually, yesterday. Our country is anything but patriotic when we don't care for our elderly.
1
The rate of suicide among this population (my own generation) has risen exponentially during the same time period. I have to wonder if we need to look at a broader continuum of despair. First you downsize, then you live off your savings, then you sell off assets (if you have any) and stop buying "luxuries" like medication. Then bankruptcy. And if, after that, you can't afford to live, what then?
33
Only in America...a country that dares to call itself civilized when in fact it is as barbaric and heartless as many a third world banana republic.
Our Constitution opens with the mandate that We the People created thus government to be ever more perfect in promoting the security, general Welfare and blessings of liberty for the people, all of the people and their progeny.
Instead we have allowed this government to promote the exact opposite. We are less secure, less able to afford essential healthcare and less able to grow old with dignity and respect than at any time since the 1960s.
While nearly all modern nations have no mandate nearly as clear as our own Preamble as to what they should be striving to achieve, most of those nations are meeting those mandates far better than the USA.
Poor healthcare, poor retirements, mass shootings a constant reality, bankruptcies becoming the norm. As Bush said during Katrina.
"Your doing a heck of a job Donnie."
This is not Making America Great Again. It is making the American Dream the scam of the century, the 21st century.
29
@Bruce Olson
This situation far, far preceded our current president. As a matter of fact one of the "heresies" he committed on the campaign trail was calling out the trillion dollars PLUS we have spent on wars of choice in the Middle East - for which he was castigated by the GOP Establishment. We should have bombed Afghanistan back to the Stone Age, oh wait, never mind; and we should have stayed out of Iraq.
2
Tim, as I said, this trending goes back at least to the 60s. As a drafted Vietnam Vet of that era, I have lived through it all, just as you may have. From my perspective with my handy dandy G I Bill MBA and 30 years of 5 turbulent corporate mergers some hostile some not so hostile, ever more reliance on 401ks and the tsunami effects of colon cancer simultaneous with the Great Recession just before Medicare, this article is right on, 100%.
I lived and worked in Australia where a good social safety net has since been built within the framework of capitalism and the free market economy. The current difference that now makes theirs more humane and ours so inhumane & riddled with inequity: They have been regulating the excesses of capitalism for the common good while we have been deregulating our capitalism in the name of short term gains to the rich and powerful through obscene profits that become at some point our seeds of greed and self destruction.
4
Think about somebody who had many engineering patents at amazon, facebook and apple. Then imagine the same individual 30 or 40 years from now,afflicted with alzheimers. Unable to express himself or herself, and needing the same care that a newborn or six month baby, unable to think and make able to make gurgling sounds at most.
If the system cannot help his family take care of the person, and many others who were once strong, independant, paying taxes, and the less fortunate elderly in our families who once cared for us, and we love and respect now, then trillion dollar evaluation is of temporary value to the very few.
13
There are federal programs that help Medicare recipients who are at 150% or below the Federal Poverty Level. These programs can cover the Part B premiums, Part D premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Unfortunately, these programs are poorly advertised.
12
It's not the Medicare premiums that are the problem (except for the supplemental policies administered by private insurance companies). It's the cost of the services themselves, including prescription drugs.
8
@2strange
but if you have any resources some cash in the bank...you do not qualify for these programs.
2
Everything in America is geared up for the rich to get richer off taxes and high product (medical and otherwise) markups extracted from the middle class and the poor. Medication and medical treatment in our country are much more expensive than most other countries. Just look at who benefits from this arrangement. The unions and retirement plans are being dismantled to bring salaries down and profits up. They have the working class so busy fighting among themselves that they're not even aware of what's really happening to them and why. Add Donald Trump as president to this mix and you can see what a dismal future lies ahead for average American citizens, especially seniors.
40
Three years ago, at 62 (disabled) / 64 (unemployed) y/o, we faced a huge amount of debt from medical bills and credit cards: approximately $ 70,000. The only way out was bankruptcy. My attorney said that we will enter our senior years absolutely debt fee, something most people only dream of. Two months after our bankruptcy I was issued new credit cards, bought a new car and have enjoyed life without debt. We also used a state government program to pay off my 2nd mortgage and also reduce my 1st mortgage down to a $750.00 monthly payment. Our social security checks (2) and pensions (2) more than cover our life.
6
@Steve
“Two months after our bankruptcy I was issued new credit cards, bought a new car”
What? ugh
4
hard to believe!
if real,just write a book on the issue and make millions!
Creditors know you can't file for bankruptcy for another 7 years so they know they are protected from writing-off any debt. I have been a customer of Ford Credit for 20 years, so they gave me a loan. We use the credit cards as a convenience, and pay the monthly statement as soon as it shows.
@ursamaj To answer your question, in my opinion our problems began in 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan.
44
Some parents, Mr. Stern said, had co-signed loans for $10,000 or $20,000 for adult children and suddenly could no longer afford them. “When you are living on $2,000 a month and that includes Social Security — and you have rent and savings are minuscule — it is extremely difficult to recover from something like that,” he said.
Others had co-signed their children’s student loans. “I never saw parents with student loans 20 or 30 years ago,” Mr. Stern said.
I feel so sad for this man. Retirement is a time to be selfish. Take care of yourself first The kids can make do. Student loans? Not a chance for my kids if they expect me to co sign. I wouldn't even think to ask my parents to co-sign for me. I joined the Army. Too many parents put themselves out for what may be the most ungrateful generation in history. And those people want everything free but are unwilling to pay the cost of Free.
16
@jabusse
Unfortunately, that isn't always an option. I have been having this conversation with my husband about my eldest stepsons college choices. He wants to apply to 40/50K a year schools out of of state. My husband and his ex have a limit to what they can contribute but have yet to discuss specifics. Our son seems determined and willing to take out huge loans to go to his top choice. They did not realize they have to guarantee those loans.
I put together a list of schools that have top rated programs for his major of choice with affordable tuition. More college cost guidance is needed going forward, for parents and students. Let this article be a cautionary tale.
12
@wcdessertgirl You wouldn't catch me spending ten cents I didn't have on a college education for a son or daughter. Think of the "education" that young person will get if they have to scramble, all on their own, to provide for themselves. The name of the college is utterly immaterial insofar as the education goes; it's what the kid puts into studying that counts.
It’s the job of the government as representatives of “we the People” to mske dire that this doesn’t happen.
They have no interest in that.
They are too busy serving their own personal interests to care about the country.
9
And yet older people voted in large numbers for Trump. (Not this one). This seems to have been counter productive, since he only cares about people who own businesses, or stockholders who profit from them. And now, "consumer protection" seems to be an oxymoron. I fear it's only going to get worse.
34
Mr. Sedita situation is not unlike a few cousins I have. They been on disability since their early 20s. Victims of accidents they could have avoided with a little more application of diligence and presence of mind. Yet their body can't work but their minds are fine. I have tried to encourage them to learn a foreign language like Mandarin or Farsi to no avail. They are content to go sideways and look to their benefactors for total support, the taxpayers.
4
What a disappointment that my generation of baby boomers allowed the political and corporate class to savage our social safety net while other countries such as Canada and Australia were strengthening theirs. Many of us had such high hopes about creating a country that cared for its most vulnerable, let alone its middle class. There is nothing exceptional about a country that burdens its population with inequitable pay, lack of health care or homelessness. Or, specifically the elderly with medical costs, bill collectors and politicians who routinely threaten their Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. These days, under the self satisfied rule of Donald Trump and his minions, the country is beginning to look like a post-apocalyptic wasteland when it comes to our social safety net, and just pursuing a middle-class livelihood.
89
@Janet Baby boomers = womans movement, doubled the available workforce driving wages down, and home living costs up. Baby boomers, Stayed in liberal arts schools then graduationg qualified only to teach the subject they learned. Women in college wasting time then taking substandard clerk jobs because they chose not to major in math science etc. Like what good is a french or history or art or dance major, really? They became societies fluff when more necessary workers were needed. Free movement that drove college costs up at 15% per year when the cost index climbed at 2 or 3 percent. When you look at it is was not the corporate structure that harmed the people. Corporations have been around for all time. It was the liberal progressive bent of our educated left that screwed things up. I think you know that but can't come to grips that it is your fault. Like many you look to others to blame when you stub your toe. "Who put that stair there?"
1
@Janet
Very well said.
Greed is very dangerous, and it has been thoroughly embraced in our current system. Corporations control every branch of out government, and it is unfortunate that we don’t have mechanisms to prevent that.
It seems to me that Ronald Reagan convinced too many Americans that we are not “We the People” working together for a great country for all Americans, but “rugged individuals” competing with each other for survival.
That dystopian view has severely divided the country and fostered a severe sense of insecurity in almost everyone.
We must return to the initial intent of the founding fathers:
“to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. . . “
7
@Janet @Jabusse nice try, foisting the blame onto your dated stereotypes of women. Today there are more women in college than men, getting the necessary credentials for work success in the 21st century. Yet men still dominate in politics and business. Men hold the power, and it's pure peevishness for them to blame the women they continue to trod over for the consequences of toxic capitalism.
9
The bottom line is that the country is drowning in transfer payments from the working to the elderly, at the expense of education and support for the next generations. It’s sad, but if you actually look at the budget, it’s true. And in about another 15-20 years, social security will run out of money and either have to cut benefits or increase taxes further.
And no, removing the cap is not an option, as it would undermine the design and legitimacy of the program as a retirement program, and transform it into welfare.
4
In reality, this country is drowning under the ocean of wealth transferred from the lower and middle economic classes to the rich and, especially, the uber-wealthy.
31
Cut welfare benefits before cutting Social Security. I worked for my benefits
6
DRS, removing the cap would not turn social security into welfare; sorry, but that is utter nonsense. On the contrary, it would save the program. If the democrats ever return to power, I hope they have the smarts to do just that.
5
Don't think for a second that this is not by design. The general population is not “allowed” to be able to retire with enough money because that would mean most of us could still influence elections with our vote, which is a “right” exclusively reserved for the richest of the rich through lobbying and super-PACs. This is exactly why healthcare and education, unlike the rest of the world, is a for-profit business in the U.S. and why Social Security has become a “supplemental income system” rather than a pension program retired people could live off after paying into it for a lifetime.
32
"Others had co-signed their children’s student loans. “I never saw parents with student loans 20 or 30 years ago,” Mr. Stern said."
The most sickening example of silent corruption, is that these loans that were to elevate children to a higher station in life were fraudulent from the onset. The cost of delivering lectures by internet was a fraction of actual interaction, and the personal relationship that motivated students.
The profit was enough to purchase legislators of both parties, to the point that showing effectiveness was not required, and allowing the obscenity that even with full government backing, banks could get interests for risks they never incurred.
These debts not only destroy the students, but as we see, their parents who thought their sacrifice would be a gift to their children. It turns out to be a curse, on the students, their parents, and mostly on our country.
20
"Apple hitting $1 trillion...", "500 Fortune companies.." "Jeff Bezos and his Amazon" Everything seems more and more an insult to our everyday lives. The idea that living the "American dream" is possible for anyone who WANTS to work hard seems today more a practical joke than a reality. Then there is the big word: "Democracy". Nowadays it's more a slogan than an ideology. You have a real democracy when a country is organized and ready to stay by your side if your health is failing, when a pregnant woman needs assistance, when you have worked hard all your life and you are eventually old and exhausted or if you are a veteran who fought to preserve your freedom and lifestyle. These people deserve more than the indifference from the government (please don't call it socialism).
Unfortunately Trump's administration has imposed an extra burden on those who already have no hope to make it and saved those who had no need to be saved at all.
25
The people who run Apple and Amazon are solid Democrats who see no issue with their massive wealth and paying minimal taxes while others have so little. The leaders of Apple and Amazon rail against Trump then jump on their private jets to their private islands to count their billions.
15
For that big word, Democracy, to work, people need to shoulder their responsibility as citizens. That means being informed and involved. Above all, that means casting a vote in elections.
Americans fail those tests miserably.
6
@Rick
I am not talking about the Democratic party. It's about Democracy. Then I don't have a grudge against Apple or Jeff Bezos who owns a private jet (at least he pays the fuel with HIS money while Trump goes to play golf at YOUR expenses). The authority to change social justice is in the government's power not a private businessman. The fact is that this administration consider people like Mr. Sedita just a nagging beggar not a hard worker.
1
A defined benefit (DB) pension (a pension that you cannot outlive) is based on the employer remaining in business, whether that be private or public sector. DB funds are invested and benefits are paid on the returns. Since 2008, returns (on everything) have been dismal.
Some DB plans didn't require employees to make fair share contributions; that tilted the DB into deficit. We know the problems and the fix: employee (EE) and employer (ER) make contributions and raise the retirement age (the average DB pension is about $20,000/yr).
For workers earning about $60-75,000/yr.: contributing to a 401(k), or similar plan, is out of the question. And if your employer does not have some sort of healthcare, you will never get around to establishing a savings account.
Those with 401(k) type accts. lost millions with the sub-prime implosion and many retirees had to return to work, going from comfortable to poor in a matter of months.
We pay social security/medicare taxes to receive benefits, not entitlements, when of age. There are millions of workers who do not contribute to either because of a variety of loopholes.
1. Invest Social security & medicare taxes to earn income for beneficiaries and EVERYONE contributes to both
2. Employers return to DB plans w/ER & EE contributions.
3. Establish Healthcare as a universal system that is paid BY EVERYONE through withholding.
These 3-steps are for the next generation. We've already made our mistakes. Let's not make it for them, too!
25
@LivingWithInterest
Umm, I’ve earned in the range you mention and have nearly $1M in my 401k.
14
Nice!!
@LivingWithInterest I've made more than that for the last three years, but before that, I made less than 75k, and 3 years ago, my 401k was worth around 300 thousand...I don't think it's helpful to tell people they are helpless. Unless we really think there is going to be some massive change to the system, we have to do what we can do, and we are capable of saving at those incomes.
This was all predictable under the W regime when they imposed the new bankruptcy rules/laws. The banking industry (which one Senator said in paraphrasing they run this place: meaning congress)got everything they wanted in making sure that those who file bk learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. It's roosting time for the working class in America: life expectancy will shorten with finances being a contributing factor, and the mortuary industry may or may not benefit, because it ain't that cheap to die anymore in the US.
9
@R.Terrance Donate your body for research. Doesn't cost a nickel.
1
I'm moving to Mexico in a few weeks. It's nice, but it's not like I actually have any choice.
15
@Jake News
What are your reasons? Food is cheap but things are expensive.
1
@Jake News
Trump and associates would just love if everyone who disagreed with them would flee the country.
2
@Gena No, things are not expensive. Why do you think that? Lifestyle is one-third to one-half the US. Medical care is cheap. And they don't have guns.
The cause of this problem is easy to see... The super rich have never been super richer... Follow the money.
47
Why isn't the price of health care tied to the person's consumption of alcohol, cigarettes, sugar and junk food?
7
Because it wouldn't solve anything? I am not sure how that is going to rein in the high costs of drugs, equipment, medical procedures, etc.
6
@Alice
Why don’t people with kids & stay-home spouses, or multiple exes, pay more into Social Security? They increase the liability.
Why don’t parents of criminals pay more to support courts and law enforcement? They created the problem.
Etc etc
1
Is that why a medication that was $70 years ago is now $1100?
7
For all the specific causes and effects mentioned, I think this boils down to the fact that we are witnessing the great 401k experiment failing before our eyes. Keep in mind that the generation that has recently/is currently entering retirement will be the first that will be required to exist solely on their own personal savings (401k vs pensions).
We will soon see the results of the great fleecing of the American citizenry by both the investment banks and the companies that sold off the future of their workforce to them. I fear it will only get worse.
Don't forget, that at the end of the day the wealth of the bulk of retirees that are not reliant on SS have is all dependent on the stock market. We all know how stable and reliable that is (especially with the current lot in charge).
55
@DSal
This isn't only a problem with the 401K system. This is a problem with living beyond our means. What we are seeing now is small time stuff compared to what is coming in 30 years, maybe sooner. That is when the bill for what the government is spending on Medicare and Social Security comes due. The one advantage of the 401K system is you are not dependent on the changes that occur with the pension systems such as the gentleman at the end of the article where his union screwed him over. I would say neither the government, the employers or the unions are reliable to take care of you. Each is going to do what is best for the masses and that may not include you.
3
What unites Americans as a country has always confused me. A couple of months ago, there was a tsunami of indignation about children being separated from their parents and put in cages. (As well there should have been.) This indignation was powerful enough to start the wheels turning backward on that vile practice within weeks of it being widespread news. However, six years ago, children were butchered while in their classrooms. Where was the change-making indignation for them? The plight of the elderly has been old news for decades. Healthcare has been old news for decades. And yet, where are the protest marches for our most senior of citizens? Where is the civil disruption that prompts meaningful change that benefits current and future generations of vulnerable adults? Clearly, we seem to be cherry-picking the causes that galvanize the country but I can't always see the logic in our judgment.
23
@Claudia U.
The problem with the old folks going bankrupt was a problem in the 60's. Then Medicare was passed and the old folks became the richest demographic group in the country. They probably still are, but the pension plans that were developed in the 40's, 50's and 60's were not prepared for people living into their 80's and 90's. They were horribly underfunded and along with healthcare costs were bankrupting companies. Now the only pension plans left in country are for government employees and they are sending cities and states headed for bankruptcy. There is not an easy answer for these problems. They carry the weight of 330 million citizens that must be accommodated. Any attempt to remedy them comes with a massive price tag. Compound this with the next generation already being debt ridden with the cost of education. This country is headed for poverty and it is because we are living beyond our means. Take every dime the rich have and it will pay the bill for one year. Then you got nothing to pay for the next year. I don't have a problem with taxing the rich, especially the extremely rich, more but tht won't solve the problem. We have to come to grips with what we are spending.
5
I believe Social Security was invented because people do not save for their old age and we wanted to make them do it through a government program. Time passed, people forgot, and some said "I can manage it myself." Hence the 401(k)s. People don't save enough or they dip into it when they should not. We used to know that we would always have to live somewhere so the best thing we could do was have a house paid off BEFORE we retired. Taxes & insurance are bad enough. When some of our neighbors were retiring early at 55 or starting their social security benefits at 62, we keep working long enough to reach maximum benefits. I figured it was easier to work from 60 to 65 than to retire early & try to figure out how to go back to work from 70 to 75 if I was running low on cash. Anyway, sticking with the administrative job I had, paid a lot better than the Walmart greeter job I might get later. About those student loans: If you are not rich and the kid can't get a big enough scholarship send him/her to a community college where living at home is an option. The four year degree you get from the major state university will never mention you spent the first 2 years at Frugal Community College. All this advice is useless if you are beyond the age of making these decisions, but just in case you are young enough, there you go.
23
@Donna Social Security began during the Depression because one-third of the population had no work and people were forced to live on the streets, or in shanty towns, or in garages. Old people who had saved money lost it all--no FDIC until 1933. This was a crisis and Social Security--pitifully small though it was--was designed to help people over 60 have at least some income they could count on.
Also, I don't think all that many people actually decided they could handle their own retirement money. Their employers decided this for them.
16
It is about time this scandal got covered. There has been a lot of talk about medicare for all and student loans but virtually nothing about the brutal, ruthless triage of seniors.
The move toward an "outsourced" labor force meant that many workers worked just as hard for less -- and less included less in health benefits and retirement, both of which represented surplus value to the worker -- that is, something more in value than his market value labor would earn. Financially these workers were digging their grave, earning less, with more expenses and less to save.
On top of that, the crash of 2008.
Now for the cruel part. Retired workers cannot possibly survive on social security income. The estimated average monthly benefit in 2018 is $1,404. (The 2,780 benefit applies only to those who earned over 108 K a year for 35 continuous years and don't really need social security)
If retired workers continue to work (which they must) their meagre social security benefit is taxed! It is also "taxed" in the amount of their Medicare premium ($130 avg)
It gets worse. Medicare only covers 80% *and* premiums are *set to rise based on age* -- the older you get, the poorer you get, the more you are taxed by both the government and rapacious private supplemental insurers.
Can anyone think of a system that is more brutal and sadistic? Yes sadistic.
Social Security must be adjusted to a livable sum (2,500) and not taxed. The 20% Medicare copay should be eliminated.
139
Where does the money come from again? Please don't say the rich and corporate America they own congress.
3
@Wait, what?
Cut out stupid wars?
Where is the "greatest, best" insurance program we were promised 2 years ago? After gutting the AHC - Soaring drug prices for people who absolutely need the medication- We're waiting......
35
This is unbearable to read. All this suffering so the rich can undermine the social safety net in American and destroy the Affordable Care Act, while on their path to reduce Medicare. And with a gold-plated president as their symbol!
61
@Mary Douglas "The rich"? Last time I checked, Trump voter demographics did not scream "the rich" to me.
3
I am one of the folks described in this article. Laid off just past 50, for 10 years I have battled underemployment and periods of unemployment. My savings is gone. I am about to sell my house to pay bills. I have nowhere to go. However, I think the bitter anger toward Republicans is misplaced. I have watched Democrats extend the social safety net in the name of buying votes. No rules to ensure people weren't gaming the system. No rules to even ensure people were eligible to receive aid. Program were a hand out, not a hand up. Meanwhile, working Americans -like I used to be - paid an ever growing bill. Lofty promises of a social utopia are unsustainable when you run out of other people's money. What's ironic is through out my financial decline, my taxes kept going to maintain a safety net for which I don't qualify. Without enough income to pay bills, I also got behind on taxes. Obamacare provided little care, and high premiums. Now that I can no longer afford any premiums at all, it will only provide a tax penalty that I can't pay because I'm broke. The Great Society of the 1960s has arrived, and it looks very little like the Democrats promised. However, I suspect it looks just like they expected.
17
@Citizen
I am sorry to read of your current financial situation and the problems it presents. I was also sorry to read in your comments that you blame Democrats for almost all of the issues you face. Your way of expressing your discontent is almost verbatim Republican propaganda attacking Democrats and is not based in fact at all. As they say, if you say something that is not true enough times folks will believe it. Sorry to read you believe it.
19
@Citizen And here is a perfect example of a Boomer blaming their taxes and the poor for their current situation and letting Rs, their own bad choices, and corporate greed totally off the hook. The Great Society doesn't look the way it was promised because of Boomer foolishness and Republican economic policy. Let's PLEASE learn a lesson from them, fellow Millennials, and not follow their terrible lead.
I voted for Clinton and I hate Trump but, to be honest, Trump's policies have actually made me a lot of money. And I think in turn the people who voted for and continue to support Trump are exactly the people that have been hurt. And so - myself included - people continue to vote against their own interests.
17
@DILLON
Same here. I’ll be going on a nice vacay with my tax cut money. Hope the Magas whose economy is destroyed by tariffs are satisfied.
2
@DILLON
A lot of wealthy people voted for Trump. Many poor people simply did not vote.
Rich people have the luxury of voting for either party knowing they are not really going to be hurt either way.
6
@DILLON If you've made a lot of money, I hope you are using it to help those less privileged and lucky than you.
With more older Americans flirting with bankruptcy, younger people struggling to pay off college loans, middle America forced to accept jobs that pay substandard wages often with no medical benefits, and health care costs skyrocketing ∏— even for those with coverage — America appears to be in deep decline, save for a few hundred people who are hoarding billions of dollars. And sadly, Americans are just too damn tired to schedule a revolution.
47
Revolt against what H? “The man”? As I read most of these comments, I conclude, like you, America is in decline. But we’re probably 180° apart H about the cause. It ain’t “the man”. It ain’t, 100 billionaires. It’s a mindset of so many, like those posting here, that it’s the government or someone else’s responsibility to finance my life.
When I was 7 years old my father sat me down and he said “Tommy Hillfiger, never forget that the ultimate consequence of democracy is socialism because when 51% of the people are looking for a hand out, 49% of the people will eventually stop working”. Sadly, it appears we’ve reached that point.
I wonder how many single older Americans have housemates? That would certainly help. I don't know how much but it should help some. Of course it is compromise.
11
@stever Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't think it possible to more than oblivious.
6
@stever
Everyone feels entitled to his/her own household with all the trimmings. Eyeroll.
Same for “struggling single moms.” Why don’t they team up instead of demanding more dole from those of us who didn’t carelessly botch our lives?
1
I am 74 and my husband is 72. Between the two of us, we work 4 jobs, 12 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. The cost of living in a tiny rural town five hours north if San Francisco never stops rising. And with us, none of it is medical. It's utilities, transportation, insurance (mostly nonmedical), taxes, and food. When we have discretionary income, it goes to replacing essentials, like a vacuum, shoes, bedding. One positive for the economists is that this pressure will trim longevity and bring down end-of-life health costs. We'll just drop dead in the field somewhere, like our great-grandparents.
43
@WCLestina
Guess your discretionary income also goes for internet, device and NYT subscriptions. Hmm
3
While profligacy is the culprit for some, regardless of age, for those in my age group (70+) the loss of pensions is a much more common cause of poverty. Employers across the spectrum of professions and vocations shuttered their defined benefit plans with impunity and gave those lucky enough to get anything two equally bad choices compared to what the workers had been promised: Lump sum payout (either rolled into an IRA or on which taxes were due immediately if not) or a monthly stipend a fraction of what would have been paid at normal retirement.
IRAs and 401-Ks are not user friendly. Worse, the investment options, particularly for, but hardly limited to, smaller companies were little more than cash cows for the funds "providing" the investment service. High investment fees on ongoing monthly or annual account charges kept the bankers in high cotton and assured the "investor" little or nothing, if not less than that. There was always the fine print: Returns are not guaranteed or insured. You can and may (read: WILL) lose money.
The Republican party was tickled with this situation. Remains so to this day. There is an undeniable direct and causative relationship between the decline of unions and the disappearance of livable pensions.
52
Now is the time for Democrats to address worker shortages and increase the H1b visa limits. Also we should increase the f1/OPT limits. We need cheap temporary workers to keep large corporations profitable
4
No, just create a path to documentation and citizenship, and let them contribute to the economy. Collect Social Security and taxes and we’ll all be better off. Certainly less costly in the long run.
8
I knew 20 years ago I wasn't going to be able to retire if I stayed in the US. I always had a good job, no kids, but I'm not an investment guru, and I distrusted the people that claimed to be. I was good at what I did, but we can't all be smart with our money. I got lucky with some real estate, and left right before 'he' took office. I'm in a country that has better health care than the US, and as long as Ryan and company don't make off with my Social Security, I can live a fairly comfortable lifestyle here, without the stress of dealing with what the healthcare system has morphed into back home. If I was still there, I'd be working until I dropped in my tracks.
49
People nearing retirement should reexamine their assumptions about their expenses when they retire and write up a detailed monthly budget before they make the switch.
Medicare alone costs $600-$1,000 a month for a non-subsidized couple's premiums, which is far more than many people paid for their share of employer-provided insurance. At the same time, the rising incidence of costs not covered by Medicare is raising out-of-pocket expenses.
Healthcare costs alone can easily account for more than total housing costs of people who own their homes. Starting retirement with the equivalent of two mortgages has begun to rival the conundrum of college graduates entering the workforce with two mortgages -- one for a home, and one for college loans.
8
@Sequel
What did I pay a lifetime into for Medicare? The opportunity to pay again? How nice.
4
@Marie This is just my hunch ... we've all been acclimated to the false claim that Medicare is free ... and that it is one of those evil "entitlements" that must be slashed.
While the public has been arguing about "socialism" and "entitlements", successive Congresses have shifted Medicare costs back to retirees, while health care providers have been raising costs for everything in response to Congress's cutbacks.
If Medicare were a single payer system, none of this would be possible. If Congress "fixes" ACA by creating Medicare for All, it will accelerate this disease-like process.
@Sequel
"Medicare alone costs $600-$1,000 a month for a non-subsidized couple's premiums..."
Why are you spreading malicious ignorant lies?
2
Do the math. The subject of this article, Mr. Sedita, has been on disability one half of his life and now doesn't have enough to live on. I do not pretend to know the extent of his injuries at the ripe, old age of 37 but if he wasn't able to serve as a carpenter, he could have been retrained to do something else for the remainder of his working life.
I sympathize with Mr. Sedita's plight but too often when we are young we don't see the big picture and we blink and retirement is upon us.
BTW, I am 68 retired, and instead of keeping up with my cronies saved for the rainy day. I put two kids through college and am now helping them buy into the ridiculous California real estate market. It can work. It takes luck but you also have to plan. Just my two cents.
14
The USA is a failed state.
It failed the majority of its legal residents and citizens.
The USA is a great country when you are young; healthy; wealthy or have a government job or a combination thereof
22
to all the commenters complaining about their taxes being raised to pay for Universal Health Care:
1. Who do you think is paying for all of these bankruptcies? creditors write these debts off in addition to corporate tax breaks . As the government has less and less tax revenue from businesses, the tax burden on working individuals and families has increased exponentially in the past few decades.
2. We keep being told that the things we need to make our society function better and be more productive in ways that benefit the majority rather than the minority are too expensive. Roads, Bridges, schools, hospitals, airports, public transportation, ect. But many of us are already being taxed to the hilt. We are paying the cost for corporate tax cuts, profit based Health Care, illnesses caused by climate change and environmental damage from air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, and military spending that is pork for many state economies.
No one should have a mortgage in their 60s and 70s. But even with a mortgage paid off, you can still lose your home because of high property taxes you can't pay. And try selling a home in an area with high property taxes that isn't in a prime market. Or in an area where no one is buying.
When do the overtaxed of America band together and demand a say in what our tax dollars are being used for? NOV 2018.
24
Waiting out the final 8 months until retirement, but I think I'll stay on at least two more years. So far, so good. 401k producing income, and my wife comes on line with Social Security of her own that is nearly equal to mine, and insurance plan will come on when Social Security is affected by inflation. Keeping fingers crossed.
4
If you've got big credit card debt and you can't find work to pay off your cards, you need to file bankruptcy. It's simple with a good attorney, the process is swift and effective. My attorney charged me $1500, and was a joy to deal with. After a few months I was able to get credit cards, although with higher APR.
5
Here's an example of where our 231 year young capitalist society isn't working very well and i am a capitalist ! (My own business for most of my life)
Rather than be caught up in names Capitalist, Socialist etc.,it's more important to make the correct decisions for our society or we'll just have chaos surrounding us.
So let's get off the "capitalist" slow freight carrying all these seniors who are going broke. take a good look at other countries that are doing a better job with this problem. Scandinavian countries are generally more helpful but they charge their people a higher income tax rate in order to be of more help.
The question--are YOU willing to pay a higher tax in your bracket for more help from government when you really need it.
To help with this--spend less during your better income years
with lower cost home, car, vacation and less on "Things"
Your government is the only one to help with Health, advanced age needs, retirement (Unions are declining, don't depend on them.)
You have no one to count on if your government is broke, so be prepared to pay them a higher tax rate as the Scandinavians do in your income bracket.
Rule: Government can't borrow from this fund.
Are you one of those who think --"Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax the guy behind the tree,"- You are not realistic.
Look to other's success for help to the elderly.. Do as Scandinavia does.
Don't depend on your union to save you.
Few are able to save on their own.
Time to wake up--America.
14
In Canada, we don’t pay for medical and have good pensions benefits and tax breaks for retirement savings. Perhaps I am out of the loop for the reality of my fellow citizens, but this problem sounds so foreign to me. But here’s a newsflash. My taxes are no higher than yours and the Canadian government is in no way in the kind of debt yours is. In fact, the US government spends more on healthcare. Do look to unions to help - they are really effective at fighting for workers rights. Don’t believe the lie that a social democratic system will be more expensive for you. It will be for your very rich, but they’re fine. They can afford it, unlike the millions of seniors in your country who are paying for your billionaires’s welfare checks.
32
The USA has a lot more citizens than Canada and we have a lot more citizens who have never paid into the system
2
@ Tiera V
Tiera, you misunderstood my comment. Maybe i didn't explain it well.
When i recommend Scandinavia, they have a more social democratic system. I even believe in single pay because i am trained to seek efficiency. Our current system has too many agencies paying out funds without knowing what the other agency is doing.
Unions go out of business or change the rules.
Read the example in the original article by Ms.Bernard. My comment is suggesting we do it like Scandinavia which doesn't pay out the senior's money to "billionaires who are on welfare"
I want to help the seniors in trouble.
Actually we agree on basic things but you are unjustly skeptical because i am a business person.
Encourage more people to take the risk to go into business or you and other workers will be out of a job. Government can't be the only employer in town.
Only our government will have the funds to pay for seniors who are in trouble. Only if YOU and all others pay into this government fund, the troubled seniors(and others) will remain in trouble.
If you think that YOU shouldn't have to pay, THAT is the real problem.
There are not enough "billionaires on welfare checks" around to pay for everything.
Want to tax the wealthy ?--Then tax on wealth, not on income. The wealthy have ways of adjusting their incomes. Don't just complain about the wealthy---Start Thinking !
I am with you. But not if only the "other guy" pays for seniors (or others) in real trouble.
M.W. Endres
Opt Out
The cost of health care is such that even with insurance one's savings are accessed by the corporate elite until depleted. In Europe a Doctor's visit for a foreigner like me with no insurance costs about $30.00 European Doctors have an excellent living standard. Why is our care an expensive rip-off? There is only one way we have to correct the problem. Love oneself and don't pay, you will see how quickly they shape up and your savings will soon be there as there are already too many of us for them to sue.
9
@STJuste - Doctors in Europe do have substantially lower incomes than doctors in the US. The average specialist MD in Switzerland, a very rich country, makes $135K, compared to the average specialist in the US at $265K.
6
@Jonathan
Yep. I know many physicians who consider themselves liberal and progressive till you suggest that for the greater good they don’t really need to make $250-400k a year. Then the backpedaling is amazing.
My MIL has just had her third successful joint replacement surgery. She has had long rehabs in rehab centers with twice daily physical therapy. She is back to playing golf. She has never thought for one minute about the fact that a Union negotiated her golden health benefits. Her benefits are extensive and her co-pays are low. Her grandchildren will never have the peace of mind or health coverage she has. She doesn't support Obamacare and voted for Trump.
33
@H. G.
I’d be hard pressed to continue associating with such a hypocrite, MIL or not.
5
Where is the AARP?
The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan advocacy group, in
June, has reported a 34% loss in the buying power of social security benefits, since the yr 2000.
Stealing 34% from the checks of the elderly is criminal ! The Social Security COLA (Cost of Living adjustment) needs to be accurately restored. These losses need to be made up for, in order to prevent many more bankruptcies, heartaches, suffering and deaths of American elderly.
I see where the Trump just gave the Oligarchs "huge" increases in their take home salaries.
When Pres. Bush, "W", gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy, circa 2003, he cut off the eligibility of many veterans to enroll in VA health care.
36
As noted, those in bankruptcy represent just the tip of the iceberg. I wonder what difference it might have made if the Affordable Care Act had been allowed to proceed without constant attacks against it. When I retired 5 years ago, I would have taken part in the ACA, but was afraid it would be sunk before I reached Medicare age. So I kept a work-related policy which is much more expensive than any ACA option because I didn't want to risk being without health insurance. If we don't find a way to bring down the cost of health care, we'll drown in the costs.
16
Look on the bright side:
The Republicans who gutted and are still gutting the ACA were able to retain their own felicitous health plans and their pensions throughout.
So they're doing fine, and their futures are assured. Good on them.
For the rest of you: let a smile be your umbrella.
28
When SS implemented, the retirement age of 65 was about the average life expectancy in the USA, if not slightly higher. If the US pegged retirement to that, retirement benefits and medicare would kick in about 78. Unfortunately between ageism is hiring, and ill-health due to bad luck or unhealthy lifestyles, how many people over 65 who want to work can? And how many over 65 want to?
6
@LJ
That’s just not true. Lots of oldsters then; the average age was skewed downward by infant/child mortality pre vaccine & antibiotics.
Please read: https://www.ssa.gov/history/lifeexpect.html
4
I'm retired and have met a lot of people, particularly men, over 65 who want to keep working, and plenty of people who are healthy and active well after 65. 65+ers are an ever-increasing percentage of the population, but we place little value on the contributions and experience of older people. That's part of the reason I retired when I was able to. Too many times when I tried to bring my experience to bear, just as something that should be considered, not as the way it had to be in the future, I was basically told, you're a fossil, shut up and do what we tell you. This was in my 50's, mind you. A friend of mine was pushed out of his company in his early 60's simply because it's a technology-related company and they don't particularly like being represented by older people. He was given a decent buyout package, but the price was, he had to waive all potential grievances, including age discrimination. He has a kid in college and his wife has a part-time job, and he loved his work. He would've put up with their not wanting him for a few more years, but he was given the swift kick. Now he's paying a killing insurance premium under the ACA until they reach Medicare age. The younger people who think they're solving a financial problem will have to deal with it on the back end. Good luck. I realize I'm lucky to have decent benefits.
6
What a blessing catastrophic care insurance is for the well off, but not for the bankrupt. Parkinson’s, Alzheimer patients, and of course cancer patients, are lucky to have good coverage when they can afford it, but not without years of sacrifice and being lucky to maintain a high income stream without getting sick. Maybe work stress promotes those pathological diseases. Would think that someone will propose a mass euthanization bill to cut taxes and trim healthcare costs on the uninsurable, thus making affordable healthcare a reality, while coming to the aid of the healthy and rich. That is a real vote getter. The key is whether or not he is a diabetic, which can accelerate stroke, heart attack, and cancer, particularly if he is not able to afford an exercycle to pump purified blood through his system every day, to prevent further deterioration. He might hang around for a while with Parkinson’s, unless it is layered in with another complicating disease where he’d be picked off soon enough. Comforting thing about Alzheimers over Parkinsons, is that he would not be aware of how “unknown” the path ahead will be, and after nurses cut off food and water for four days in his locked “nursing home” room, he would die peacefully without knowing anything about his predicament. With Parkinson’s, he will be bright and alert until the end, aside from cognitive frustrations from medication, if/when he can afford it. Would never venture a guess on cancer outcomes.
I do not understand how people who don't make high incomes can be expected to max out their 401Ks and save "enough" for retirement to avoid bankruptcy. And some people blame them when they file as if people can always predict when they will be hit by an accident or a adverse medical problem. Are you kidding me? Many Americans have bought into the propaganda of individualism, that government has little role in helping people. A big problem is that people who are not close to retirement age can't really imagine what it will be like for them to no longer feel so much energy, to sense that job opportunities are dwindling, to begin to see that physical ailments are more likely...and what does that feel like when you know that there's insufficient safety nets. For those of you criticizing these older people...have you never made an unwise decision because you couldn't see the future? Do you know what it's like to have an accident that renders you unable to work? So easy to criticize these people as "deadbeats" and perhaps some are, but there's many who are not but just trying to make ends meet. What I find most unbelievable is I know two people who rant against taxes when both have siblings who have benefitted from government disability payments for years! These government payments have eased the burden of these two people from having to support their siblings, and yet they complain about their contributions to the government.
65
We are watching the effects of the transition from defined pension plans to the 401K experiment.
I am now retired. My 401K worked, because I was very fortunate to have been involved in a successful high tech company almost from the inception. My 'retirement plan' for a number of years was stock in this high tech company, which eventually rolled over into my 401K. This is certainly not a typical 401K experience, as evidenced by the examples in this article.
Defined pension plans from the mid-twentieth century were not the long term solution for today's environment either because of how often many change jobs. My first six years of employment were with an aerospace company. I earned absolutely nothing for retirement from that company, because I was never vested.
Meanwhile, Paul Ryan and the GOP are attacking Social Security, Medicare, and our health care system. I am still amazed at how many senior citizens foolishly vote for GOP politicians.
49
@Henry Wilburn Carroll..thanks for the input...but the plan for the GOP is that upon retirement, they hope and pray that we expire within a five year range
8
@R.Terrance " they hope and pray that we expire within a five year range" - well, I must admit! I'm hoping the same for myself! :-)
I am profoundly saddened by the many comments suggesting that people whose lives don’t measure up to scrutiny are undeserving of benefits. Where did our compassion go? Our society is truly in the throes of a sickness.
57
@JB
Some of us have spent a prudent lifetime being cash cows for the feckless. We’re tired of it.
Where is your compassion for us?
6
Agreed. Anecdotal I know, but I have observed so many people engaged in “ magical thinking”: they save nothing , keep buying new cars, second homes, bigger homes and then are SHOCKED! when they can’t pay for college for their kids or their own retirement. And I’m supposed to kick in the money I have saved or invested?
4
@Kosher and @Monroe
You’ve illustrated JB’s point perfectly.
2
I just don’t understand why we continue to elect individuals into office, especially ones like trump, who want to take more and more from the elderly. Republicans have wanted for decades to completely eliminate Social no-Security, but they settle upon cutting it constantly and raising the out-of-pocket costs for Medicare. Hardly any employers offers pensions anymore, and when they do, they continuously cut the benefits from them when you need them the most. You are now expected to start 401k savings plans, rely upon a stock market not to crash and wipe-out your savings, but the employers don’t give employees a $100-$200 raise in their weekly pay to put into the 401k in order to save the money. You are expected to save the little money you make, and heaven forbid pay increases. Every single man who is 60 years and older, and every single woman who is 65 years and older (taking into consideration the average life expectancy) and relies solely upon Social Security, with under say $200,000 in savings, should be entitled to fully funded and fully covered healthcare with no out-of-pocket cost. We have a government that continuously makes the rich even more wealthier at the expense of everyone else. Time has come to break the cycle. The financial inequality in this country must come to an end. The elderly have earned the right to live comfortably without having to go without medication or losing their homes. Remember this come November and 2020.
43
@Dave P. You are gravely mistaken if you think the government (Republican or Democrat) is going to take care of you.
Thank you GOP for your sustained all-out attack on our social safety net, now 38 years in the making, in service of eliminating taxes for the wealthy.
Every other rich country has figured out that universal health care is the only way to accomplish the widespread well-being of its citizens. Except us.
49
@David
Our bodies are profit centers. Like everything else in this country.
1
The transfer of the obligation to fund retirement from employers (defined benefit plans funded at no cost to the employee) to the employee (401K plans funded entirely by the employee) is the main culprit.
Insurance companies fattening their profits while providing zero added value and our legislatures (both parties!) not mandating Pharma provide "most favored nations" pricing to Medicare complete our national embarrassment.
It's been a good few decades to be a shareholder...an employee....not so much.
19
No one should go bankrupt over medical expenses, paying rent, co-signing student loans, keeping warm in the winter or cool in the summer. Period.
31
@Apple Jack
I don’t use AC myself ( and it was 96 with high humidity yesterday) and not interested in my wages being confiscated to pay for someone else to loll my an air conditioner. Get a $15 fan and a wet washcloth.
1
Even those people who have never saved anything, bought gigantic homes, max out credit cards, etc? I should pay for them?
1
Maybe seniors are smart enough to realize you can hold on to your 401k, house, car and Social Security, but eliminate a lifetime of debts through bankruptcy. A lower credit rating has little impact.
11
@Rick
Educational loans , including those taken for your children or grandchildren, are not ever forgiven. They will chase anyone they can, regardless of whether they are legally responsible for those loans, even after death.
And maybe you should re-read the bit about how pitifully small those 401k savings are. During the phaseout of pensions and lifetime jobs there were few savings options and even less effort to educate people regarding those options.
The current amount needed in retirement is currently estimated at very roughly six times your ending salary. However I don't believe it adequately accounts for loss of earnings and the cost of health insurance for any or all years between 50 and 65 when a LOT of people are laid off.
As for taking a jab - how sharper than a serpent's tooth is a thankless child.
8
The bottom line is all these people can be helped depending on how large a check every American is willing to write each week to pay for it. That's the reality of the situation.
3
There’s more than enough money in the military budget.
24
@FortunateSon
That might be true, but do you really think that cutting the military will ever happen in this country? Neither party will ever do that.
My husband and I both earned a lot of money and were living a very comfortable life. Though far from retirement and with a successful business, I wanted to stop working so I could perhaps take some college courses and spend more time with family. Our son was getting ready to leave for college and we were planning to purchase a second home. Everything was on track. Then the unimaginable happened. My husband developed an aggressive cancer and died a month later. In one day, I went from the top quintile to the bottom. Alone, and with a son who just started college, I could not reconstitute my business. I returned to school to earn a master's degree. I now work as a researcher but because my income is based upon grants, I'm in and out of employment. If I were 30 years younger, firms would be fighting to employ me. Because I am now 7 years from retirement, no one wants me. Many older Americans want to work but a simple click of a computer reveals our age. One start is to make a person's age impossible to find. It should be private. Another is to enforce age discrimination laws. And a third is to incentivize corporations to hire those over 50. Youth does not mean ability. I know. I supervise many younger people. I know I am luckier than most but that still does not make it easy.
122
@j Age discrimination is alive and well and the laws are easy for employers to circumvent. The same young people making hiring decisions now never believe they will be a victim of it themselves in the future.
15
@j - I suggest everyone in this situation check their life insurance coverage. If you are reasonably healthy, term life is dirt cheap.
My mother knew a woman whose daughter was a successful surgeon, but her husband was a newspaper photographer. They lived very well. She got brain cancer and died, but fortunately she had heavily insured her life, since the whole family depended on her income.
6
@j
Well, you took a risk. That is not the fault of society, whennan able bodied adult chooses not to work! And why no big life insurance policy on the sole breadwinner?
Sorry but those were both personal decisions, not systemic failures.
1
I don't see how that entrepreneurial spirit that once made America the envy of the world can co-exist with the level of risk that the average person now has to bear individually. Before the social safety net programs of the 1960s and 70s, people at least had big families to backstop them if they got sick or lost a job - and jobs were plentiful. Now, families are tiny individualistic groups and getting a job is like winning a lottery.
With healthcare tied to employers and college debt skyrocketing, citizens are living cautiously, in survival mode for years. A free people is not supposed to be cowering in fear. Congress?!
20
@EE Huh? In the 30s there were soup lines and starvation and people wandering all over the country looking for work. Their big families wandered with them. But what the hey, World War ll came along and kept a lot of people fed and working.
2
I do find this article quite interesting. It is well documented and informative. The unfortunate piece is that this was all predicted. This is what older voters wanted when they voted for the GOP. This is exactly what this administration wants to happened. You have a choice and it comes around every 2 years. Can we please make this one count?
50
If only corporate bailouts were available to ordinary people. But ordinary people are branded as "takers" while billions in handouts go to the same oligarchs who ruined us. Bailouts, tax breaks, subsidies – and zero accountability.
29
A lot of people in this country are living from paycheck
to paycheck, and are having difficulty saving any money
at all. People have lost jobs. 401k's have taken hits in 2000
and 2008 and then you have Health care. Our beloved President tells me that this is the best economy ever! I think
some democrats should read this excellent article and maybe
they'll get a clue.
23
Me? If my 401k was started at 19 instead of 50, I'd have a decent retirement, planning to spend $3k per month out of pocket for medical expenses and $12k per month for rent in my 70's. Yeah, you guys blaming "poor planning" for the despicable medical costs and insane cost of living; do you even really know if YOUR retirement will work? Your political claptrap makes me think you haven't used the calculator...because about 90% of you will not live to the standard you have today unless you have about $5M in the bank, or move out of the country.
27
It is a roulette game to depend on the stock market for retirement. Retire when it's up, you win, reach retirement after a crash , too bad , you lose.
17
For young people thinking of attending graduate school and earning a PhD, you really must know this about academia: Probably a comfortable majority of tenured and tenure-track professors at 4-year colleges in the U.S. who are under the age of 50 have no plans to retire, ever. Their retirement plan is to die at their desks working full-time into their late 80s or even early 90s if they can, because they wish to avoid the nightmare stories described in this article. This is what it means to be lucky in 21st century America: Guaranteed lifetime employment that allows you to keep working full-time with benefits until you are an octogenarian or older.
Salaries in academia, never very high to begin with, have been stagnant for a long time and the benefits have become less attractive--especially at the state colleges and universities that make up a majority of all institutions. Few young academics who started their careers after the year 2000 believe they will ever be able to save enough money to retire, and even fewer believe that Social Security will be solvent in the year 2040 or 2050.
Just a word of warning to anybody considering an academic career. The people you hope to someday replace will NOT quit. To paraphrase Charlton Heston, their tenured faculty positions will be taken from their cold, dead hands.
18
@AR, I have often wondered how many jobs would open up in all sectors for young workers if older workers didn't need to keep their work-related health insurance.
12
@AR Their retirement plan is to die at their desks working full-time into their late 80s or even early 90s if they can.
Actually, a lot of academics have this as their plan because it's what they like to do. My husband is a mathematician and his plan is to do math until he drops dead, because he can't imagine doing anything else. No fishing. No golf.
His colleagues who are retired are only doing so so they have time to finish their final papers before they die.
2
@AR
Yes
The New American Nightmare: Work until 70, and then have the decency and good sense to die the day you're let go
28
“Senate sends $717B defense bill to Trump"
"The final vote on the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act was 87-10.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/01/senate-defense-bill-trump-717791
Elderly Americans are forced to work for $8.75/HR, yet the politicians (aka corporate representatives) of both parties never have a problem (or even a debate) finding $717 billion for “defense” spending.
The media gives scant coverage of this annual handout to the likes of Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Perhaps that is the understanding as these companies are top advertisers on all the TV “news” broadcasts.
16
The % of troubled seniors is still very small. Even if you want included those who are in under stress, 20%, 80% are doing just fine.
Nobody should be guaranteeing a standard of living. It’s called a safety net not a feather bed.
2
I'm older. If I become sick I won't seek out expensive medical care. I'm not going to give up what little I have left to help my children, who have real health issues as well as children of their own, in order to pay medical bills for me.
I look at this entire construct as the GOP's plan for dealing with the elderly. I guess that's why they vote consistently to harm the elderly and the disabled. They have been very effective. Many of us will chose death over becoming a burden.
44
@JW
I hope, JW, that you give your children the opportunity to help you, just as you most likely would have helped your parents.
There is something incredibly special and sustaining in my memories of helping my parents. While I miss them very much, my memories are not tinged with regret. I know my kids will help me, and will be glad to do it.
It's not a "burden" when it's fueled by love.
6
@JW, same here. But I don't have children. I have an elderly mother and a handicapped brother. I've worked hard my entire adult life. I've done a good job at nearly every position I've had. I changed careers and started over at the age of 39. I'm now nearly 60 and unemployed through no fault of my own. I can't collect Social Security. Unemployment ran out. I'm lucky in that I'm living with my mother and brother.
My mother is 86 and in reasonably good health. But she can afford most of the care she needs. I will be unable to at any age. I'm at the point where I'd rather be dead than living like this. America claims to value its citizens. That's the biggest lie ever told. All America values is money and rich white men.
Don't grow older in America. No matter what field you worked in, once you are over 50 you are considered worthless. And neither political party is doing anything to change that now or in the future.
18
@JW; Trump has consistently defended Social Security and Medicare. Take it somewhere else.
4
Since 1980 GOP voters agreed to a "trickle" and half of Dems didn't vote.
So quit whining about your "trickle" and vote your economic interest.
I never did get the enthusiasm about a "trickle" when Americans could have demanded a fair share of THEIR economy.
15
Not everyone will be able to afford extended periods of unemployment. The idea that everyone can retire at 65 is nonsensical, you can retire if you can afford to be unemployed for years and decades. Your individual economics is what determines whether or not you can retire, not whether you reach an arbitrary age,
14
As the American Dream for the many who voted for Republicans against their self interest in favor of their prejudices turns into a nightmare, the fantasy of Downton Abbey for the few comes true.
10
What a tragic disgrace. It is unsurprising that the two biggest reasons for the elderly going broke are health care expenses and student loan debt. What is wrong with this country when it refuses to even take care of its most vulnerable populations? These people have worked all their lives, unlike Trump, who has contributed nothing of value to society. America has lost its way.
24
Healthcare costs and student loans are destroying the fabric of this society and are contributing greatly to the next economic Black Swan event that is invariably going to hit the USA and even the world. Healthcare costs have spiraled way out of control. Led by higher drug prices and inflated hospital costs due to up-coding of billing services. What I truly don’t understand is why so many Americans are opposed to a single payer healthcare system when faced with such an obviously flawed current health system. The student loan crisis is going to hit hard. Society has convinced many of our young people to mortgage their futures for an education that may or may not get them a good enough job to pay back their loans. Many of the loans are designed with features that harken to the days of the mortgage crisis and worse! In many cases student loan debt isn’t even discharged in case of death, let alone bankruptcy. As the 1% enjoy the lowest income taxes on their wealth in 100 years, the rest of us are struggling. The New Gilded Age must end and it will end but will it be with a bang or a whimper?
39
@Mike L ... "a three-decade shift of financial risk from government and employers to individuals" ... this snippet tells the tale ... it amounts to a lack of governance, planned to facilitate profit taking
9
This article clearly explains why we must, for the good of the country, reduce the numbers of old people.
1. Many of those who are retired are takers, not givers or producers.
2. They tend to require much more and much more expensive medical treatments, thus unduly burdening Medicare and the insurance companies.
3. They often need to be moved to senior care facilities, sometimes at public expense (or at least subsidized by government and charitable entities).
The much-derided "Death Panels" touted not that long ago were a way to deal with these old folks, but public outcry quickly drove such terminology underground. Nowadays you will see articles here and there (in the NYT, too) promoting the idea that elders should be allowed to ease quickly out of unpleasant end-of-life conditions through assisted suicide, and that Medicare should no longer pay for certain treatments that might prolong the lives of old people.
Old folks, beware what your adult children read in the NYT and elsewhere; they and you are being brainwashed into believing that it OK is for them, abetted by doctors and the healthcare system, to put you down or withhold the means of prolonging your lives when you become inconvenient or start consuming too many expensive medical services.
Right now some healthcare ghoul (or Senate staffer) is preparing, if it isn't available already, a medical evaluation form to be administered to people who are becoming increasingly "inconvenient."
4
This is so simplistic. It would truly be horrifying if we got to this point. HOWEVER. My very conservative mother took care of her mother in her 80s-90s when she needed full time, round the clock care. She did it willingly and lovingly. We, her daughters, assumed my mother would want the same level of care from us and would gladly give it. When we asked my mother about this, she said she does not want it at all! Because my grandmother had her life extended by interventions - always ones that seemed good at the time. Oxygen support, then full time oxygen, then etc etc. She had congestive heart failure and was a cancer survivor, had high blood pressure, and dementia. My mother clearly stated her wish: no oxygen tanks. No expensive surgeries. Go on hospice with pain relief and die. This was shocking, but the reason is not what you are claiming. She had lived up close and personal what it would be like to live an artificially extended life in old age - and she chose not to do it. She is not asking for assisted suicide per se, but can you see that it is on the same track? She doesn’t want the treatments, the best medical care, or so on. She said once she reaches 70, let her die as her body intended, but with loved ones and pain medication around her!
8
Or you can vote Democratic and preserve our social safety net.
6
@John Thank you for getting my point.
One would have to be be willfully blind to say you couldn't see this coming. Reductions or elimination of pensions and retirement plans, older workers forced out of high paying jobs, and extremely high health care costs are bankrupting older workers. In order to sustain this, we need a 1970's scifi plan to eliminate people once they reach old age. Think Logan's Run. Of course the rich can buy life extensions.
13
This is just the first ripple of a Tsunami that will be the Boomers impact on our society as they age. Look for hospitals, nursing homes, clinics to be overwhelmed. Once that hits, Medicare and Medicaid will similarly be swamped with costs as elderly Boomers exhaust their medical insurance. State budgets are going to take a huge hit, not only from this but also from the pensions they promised their own workers but did not fund. Social service agencies will also be impacted as Boomers are evicted from nursing homes due to inability to pay and their older children are not capable of providing care for their frail parents.
None of this is new, there have been feet of studies warning of what is coming. In typical fashion we ducked the hard decisions, now the issue is before us and there is no way to get around dealing with it.
21
@Bruce1253: and made sure that the workers who would likely staff those services were deported.
5
@Bruce1253 the time to deal with this was in the 1980s but instead of dealing with it we elected an acting president. Now we have an incompetent in the White House who is being aided by an equally incompetent and uninterested GOP. The Democrats are no better.
This country, by neglecting to be realistic about how life works, has created a disaster for its citizens. Welcome to the upcoming swell of poverty, homelessness, suicide, and a new Depression.
6
@Bruce1253: We give $600B+ to our war department every year. Our war department could eliminate the world twice over with half of that money! I say divert 5% of that annual $600B+ to social programs and we could eliminate poverty in this country. But no - the Board Members of all those war corporations want their high salaries and golden parachutes...
3
my worst fear. I max my Roth IRA contribution every year but in the back of my head I'm thinking "please let me die before I have to try to live off of this"
24
Surely a 21% corporate tax rate, and taxing capital gains at rates lower than earned income will help these folks out.
25
@Joe Arena - If you are couple with an income under $78K, dividends and capital gains are taxed at 0%. This helps many retirees with small portfolios.
@Jonathan Specifically what portfolios? If you're on a 401k, IRA, or similar type of portfolio, you're taxed under ordinary income tax rates, not under capital gains. So exactly how much income are seniors sourcing from dividend and capital gains income?
This is terrible. How can Congress amend the Bankruptcy law so that this abuse of bankruptcy can be ended? Just more freeloaders trying to evade their debts. Our Debt Collection Industry, our Insurance Industry and our Financial Industry are suffering from this abuse. When will Congress act to end the abuse? Fiduciary Duty is Supreme. The civil and constitutional rights of the corporation are being preyed upon. :Or, our new reality.
6
@Lynn Wood
When I first started practicing law, student loans were completely discharged in bankruptcy. Then there was a fuss about doctors discharging their loans before they went into practice, and then going on to make big bucks, which was considered so outrageous. But the loans at that point were mostly low-interest government-supported loans, not the loan-shark loans that swiftly became common, along with for-profit colleges, like Trump U.
Now it is very, very difficult to have a discharge of a student loan in bankruptcy, and I have seen many senior citizens saddled with debt that is wiping them out - not just from kindly (and shortsightedly) co-signing for their children or grandchildren, but from their own debt - usually incurred when they tried to obtain a new skill or degree after being laid off from their jobs.
I know so many people who are burdened with so much student loan debt, I cannot even imagine. And, if and when the loan is forgiven by the lender as uncollectible, the amount of the debt is generally treated as income to the debtor, which can create a huge tax bill. There are offsets for insolvency, death, and disability, but with restrictions so that these re not generally available.
It's a disgrace that only the wealthy can go to school without this weight. We are a country where the class system is killing us.
9
@Lynn Wood: Freeloaders evading their debts? In my mind that's Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed, and the other defense corporations sucking up way too big a portion of our tax dollars with no return to local economies.
10
To all those commenters that suggest 'They are financially irresponsible; they deserve it'': Are you suggesting we as a society just let them become homeless at 80? Let them starve? Let them die? As a bad example to scare the ones following behind? What is your solution?
Besides I would like to point out that wages are decreasing, living expenses are increasing, job security is becoming a myth, medical costs are outrageous. Many do not have the money to save for a 401k or even are offered a 401k. Catastrophic life events melt away savings. Just because your life went well so far it will not mean that it will last. Many people I know change their tune once life strikes.
98
@Sabine: but they are still voting for the people who want to rip away the rest of the safety net.
13
@Sabine
If they were careless and imprudent, they have no right to demand the rest of us finance them to the cushy middle class lifestyle to which they feel entitentitled. They’ll need to find roommates and other cost-saving measures.
@Sabine
"Let them die? As a bad example to scare the ones following behind?"
Listen to the audience in Http://youtu.be/yva0VSN1_T4 - this is America! Of course we let them die. We tear apart families to set an example; is this so different? People should finally take responsibility for their choices such as born to unwealthy parents, born in the wrong country, or developing some disease or genetic condition.
...Andrew's Republican Twin
3
You can always just walk away. Liquidate the house, cash out the savings, and just walk away.
5
@Harley Leiber Walk away where? And that assumes you have a house and savings and can walk.
7
@Harley Leiber, if that's all you have to do it would be easy. But you can't. It takes money to live, period. We can start electing people who will serve us rather than their rich masters. We can start to understand that rugged individualism is a myth. We can stop telling people that they ought to have done this or that and realize that luck more than planning plays an important part in how one's life turns out when it comes to making enough money to support oneself, save for the future, etc.
The way things are now there is going to be a real increase in homelessness and suicide among people born after 1954 or so. We never lived in a good economy. We're the generation(s) that the earlier generations penalized because they didn't understand what a social safety net was meant to do. That's pretty ironic given the fact that at least one generation took advantage of the GI Bill. Of course that's the same generation that helped elect Reagan who started rolling everything back so that now, more than ever, we will have people of all ages living on the edge of poverty.
8
@Harley Leiber
Many folks outside of the coasts are still underwater on their mortgages because who can afford to buy a house?
It’s not that simple
2
This is the tip of the iceberg..... the worst is yet to come . The 401 k system is liking squeezing blood out of rock for most Americans. How do you save when you dont have health care and cant provide education for your children due to stagnant wages and We cant negotiate for increased
19
@Franpipeman and after you get that blood out of the rock the 401k system is legalized gambling.
The average person relies on an "adviser" whose loyalties are torn between making money for himself , his employer and the person saving for retirement. Often the later is the loser.
Wall street sings in the background....
"That's 401k (that's 401k) that's what people say
You're riding high in April
Shot down in May
But I know I'm gonna change that tune
When I'm back on top, back on top in June"
I hated having to deal with 401Ks when I first had to. I tanked a couple of small "nest eggs." My feeling was, I already have a job! Now I have to become a financial advisor (to myself) too? But then I got the hang of it. I've been smart and I've been lucky. But the burden should not fall this hard on working people who are not sophisticated, and who already have jobs.
22
This is great article, especialy the fear part. This is what i feel when i read about the absence of a real healthcare system in the us, provided by all the other developped countries. There won't be any revolution on this, like climate change , this is slow death that won't make the news. A terrible perspective, dying because of unmanageable medical expenses. Many flaws are to discuss about our healthcare system in France, the efficiency, the costs but even though i feel we don't even live on the same planet when i look at the issue in usa.
I don't see any solution when i see the kind of intellectual loophole you're trapped into, this self inflicted beliefs (name it : laffer curve, trickle down, less public management = more freedom etc..) that has little to do with economics or any rational views on wealth, care and economics.
So what would it take ? what would it take to proove/educate people about the solutions and get rid of this dem/rep angle on that matter. There will always be a human tendency for the "self", a tendency that breaks the efforts of building and running organized solidarity such as a single payer system, especialy in an ever suspicious america about anything public/civil managed solidarity. Now that americans know about the flaws, and the self inflected fear of potentialy unmanageable expenses, are there studies or sociologic works that show the path to a universal american understanding and effective solution to this essential life issue?
16
@Stéphane Tranchant My inlaws live in Canada and they both have dual citizenship. They get their healthcare in the US and opt out of the Canadian system. Single pay does not work. I am sure it is great if you don't take care of yourself, live an unhealthy lifestyle or have no other options. Our own Medicare system is inadequate and requires a Medicare plus program to work.
1
@Anthony Phillips My Canadian family, all solidly middle and/or upper-middle class, acknowledge that there are problems with their system, yet none of them would EVER choose our system over theirs. They thank their lucky stars on a daily basis for medcial care which has been effective and affordable. As a retired registered nurse, I wish we were so lucky here. Our medical care is sometimes great, often mediocre and always expensive.
After reading many of these comments, what amazes me is that people expect to be able to vote their way out of this in November. I think there is no possibility of this. The system was rigged in 2016 and it remains rigged. Trump has admitted working with the Russians to subvert the elections and nothing has been nor will be done.
18
@SW Trump did not say that at all. They tried to get dirt on Hillary, but failed. Hillary actually accomplished it though and nothing was done about it. We have her Russian dossier, that she tried to influence the election with, which then went to Comey who used it to acquire a FISA warrant. This was all after Hillary stole the nomination from Bernie Sanders with so called super delegates. The only rigging in the last election was Hillary and the DNC.
4
@SW
It is not enough, for sure, for the blue states to vote blue. The voters in blue states who want to change the system must DONATE to the Dems in red states, to activists, to those who will help voters register and go to vote.
The GOP gerrymandering and the GOP "voter ID" laws that chill our precious freedom must be counteracted with strength/dollars, not just complaints. Otherwise, a handful of states with lots of land and not so many people will continue to control our lives.
2
@Anthony Phillips Who has what? Did you include a link to the Hillary Dossier?
My upper middle class neighbors sold their home and moved to a small rental to finance their kid's private college education rather than have them go to the local excellent community college then transfer to the UC system. The neighbors are in their 60's and their considerable home equity is now gone.
Yes the middle class is vanishing in the US because of GOP policies, but many people are also making foolish financial choices.
It's a double whammy.
31
So your solution is to forgo a top education, and leave that only for the wealthy. That ensures all the high paid career opportunities stay within the elite circles of those that can afford it. It's true that you don't need an elite education to be successful, but it is advantage, especially when it comes to networking.
2
Steve, a U.C Education IS elite, it's just not expensive, relatively speaking.
1
I just turned 64. Bankruptcy is a primary component of my retirement plan. With our corporatocracy and congress robbing us blind at every step, what did you expect?
30
I have an Associate Degree and manged to save enough money to have 14 times the average of my age group here in Oregon. Which was crazy because I only had 400,000 at that time age 50. I lived modestly, and always managed my finances using accounting rules.
6
Congratulations! Let weren’t me guess- you weren’t laid off because of corporate down-sizing at the age of 55, you weren’t crippled in an a serious accident, nobody in your family cane down with a catastrophic illness, and none of your children were born with severe health problems?
10
@PM
All of which can be insured against, planned for, etc. by the prudent person who thinks ahead.
@Kosher Dill
Uh, no. It's not possible to save or insure yourself against a catastrophic illness or an extended period of unemployment. Not at a middle class income. There are always huge gaps into which you will fall.
1
The stock market has gone up over 2500% since 1980. How much different would things be if the status quo in 1980 was 401k's vs pensions? How many companies would you be willing to bet EVERYTHING on, that they will still be around in 2050?
4
Illnesses etc. are the reasons for some of these situations but most people are simply experiencing the results of choices they made throughout their lives.
The answer isn't more government handouts.
8
@Don
Choices indeed...Is it someone's choice when health care eligibility requirements are changed making it impossible to receive coverage any longer? Is it someone's choice when their spouse dies and a second income is removed from the planned budget mix? Is it someone's choice to contract a terminal disease that requires expensive medications, rather than die a quick and painless death?
I am sure somewhere in your life you show understanding and kindness, but this response is not one of them.
82
so he "chose" to have the power of the union he paid into allnhis life gutted, and therefore lose his health insurance?
11
No, I guess the answer is to make sure they are punished for their less than optimal choices.
There but for the grace of God go you and I.
18
We talk about retirement in this country like it is a given and that is somehow stolen from people who are forced to work or downsize. This whole idea of "retirement" as it has been functioning with the Boomer generation is a farce. My husband's grandparents lived in a tiny house in the city their entire marriage until the moved into senior apartments. They never "up-graded". They never bought a cabin. They didn't take vacations that required plane tickets. They never had a boat. His parents, by contrast, upgraded homes twice, building on to the expensive one in the suburbs and remodeling it along the way. They are both working although officially "retired". Am I to feel sorry for them because they don;t get to sit in their suburban palace for 30 years before dying? Absurd, retirement in general. When in the course of human history have people ever lived like that?
17
@Lynnae...and to add to what you say, I am stunned by the figures showing how many people still have mortgages after reaching age 65. One cannot plan to have a stable retirement if one is still paying a mortgage. And I can't help but notice it's the Baby boom generation that is having this difficulty. They were never known for self-denial, and their failure to save adequately has been long documented so this is not a surprise to anyone. It's far too easy to throw up ones hands and say they couldn't afford to save than live within their means for 40 years.
3
Ah, since the turn of the 19 th century. What you describe is a pretty miserable existence. Slave your life for a corporate master then die. Sounds awesome.
3
Few comments here seem to focus on the fact that medical care is much more expensive then it needs to be. -- And too many want the government to bail out the people who spent their money on vacations, eating out, fancy vehicles, etc.
8
How in the world do you know that people spent their money on fancy vehicles, vacations, etc? Does the 74-year-old in this article need to be subjected to the Austerity Police and prove he ate Spaghetti-O’s and drove a beater before he gets a Social Security cost of living increase — or the pension and benefits his employer promised when he was hired? The point of this article is that the game has changed dramatically for workers, while at the same time retirement programs have shamefully been allowed to languish.
21
@Wayside Zebra: The people who spent their money on vacations, eating out and vehicles, sponsored the tourism, restaurant and auto industries, contributing to jobs in those industries.
7
Our daughter moved to Germany 7 years ago and married. They pay 100 euro a week for full time day care, do not have to save at all for college for their children , has almost a year for maternity leave, and would have full healthcare if she lost her job. Yes taxes are higher but wouldn't this be better for most average Americans?
338
It absolutely would be. But just look at these comments and you’ll see that many Americans like to feel sanctimonious. They did things the “right” way; too bad for the others.
25
@Patriot I have noticed that many of these people who did things "the right way" had government jobs or teaching jobs.
1
Color patch- ice read at least 50 of these comments and have yet to read one where the writer stayed they worked for the government.
My mother worked for the State Department in Germany in 1970s to early 90s, and had a foresight to pay high German taxes, instead of the Federal and State (except social security) taxes. She is now in a retirement home, paid by the Bavarian state and receives her U.S. social security check and retirement benefits to cover incidentals. Thank you Mom!
32
One thing seniors turn to is getting a reverse mortgage. My advice is: DO NOT DO IT. One thing that many people fail to realize is the loan has to be paid back in full. Seniors who are cash-strapped and have nothing to turn to apply for reverse mortgages, and they pay off their credit cards, get work done on their houses, pay for medical procedures, go on vacation, etc. A couple of years down the road all the money they received from the lending institution has been spent, and now they find themselves living off their credit cards, borrowing from children, selling their jewelry, cars, anything they can to scrape up a few dollars. In the end they'll find themselves being evicted from their homes that are put up for sale at a Sheriff's sale. Furniture piled on the curb covered with old clothing. It is a sight, and something nobody should have to suffer.
The good thing is the 1% received massive tax cuts, so at least they won't have to worry about declaring bankruptcy. That's a load off the 99%ers mind I'm sure!
57
@Lawrence Imboden
Actually RMs aren’t a bad option for single homeowners
As I read some of the sanctimonious comments to this article it is understandable that bankruptcy is becoming a last resort for our senior citizens.
Most of these people did not design the predicament they find themselves in.
We are living longer and the current methods to support a longer life are totally inadequate.
We as a nation can and should do better.
80
@Paul Paul it sounds good. How much more are ou willing to contribute each week?
4
@Don I think it would be a good thing to remember that I am my brother's keeper...
@Don You make it sound like charity. It is not.
It would not be practical for me to “contribute” each week.
I, for example am retired, therefore would be willing to be taxed (fairly) on my investment income starting at a certain level.
Funding for a program would be complicated, but it can be done. All income earners should participate at a certain income level.
I wonder how many of the people impacted did not save through an employer supported IRA or some other plan that would give them "free money" through matching contributions. I wonder how many thought that another expensive vacation or newer car was more important than saving. I wonder how many saw their credit cards as free money with which to go deeper into debt. It's sad that so many aging people find themselves in financial trouble, many through no fault of their own. But they all, me included, knew that they would age. How they aged would be largely up to them.
8
@David Kannas
I wonder how many of the people impacted were able to foresee the meteoric rise in health care costs. I wonder how many of them expected their pensions to go away.
64
Sounds like you have had the benefit of an employer sponsored pension, health care and have not had many difficulties in your life. Consider yourself lucky! Now show some compassion for those who circumstances are different than yours. Pay it forward.
47
@David Kannas: I wish you knew what you were talking about. Many employers do not offer what you mention and many employers still do not earn sufficiently to contribute meaningfully.
"Expensive vacations and new cars?" Really?
I don't know how old you are, but life doesn't always happen the way you so sanctimonious describe.
Companies go bust as do the pensions: I know. I worked for decades in an industry that all-but disappeared. The "pension" got booted into the "Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation" (all $152.00 of what should have been thousands). Starting over as a lower-wage School Employee now gets me a whopping $700.00). Social Security will be cut by 40% because of my "Windfall."
Speak what you KNOW- not what you Assume.
19
In the "old days" seniors lived with their children. Many three generation families. Good for the development of the grand children. Seniors will have to trade independence for survival. Seems like an easy choice. May even make the family unit stronger.
10
@Steve
It might also put the family unit at each others' throats if they all have to be crammed up together.
10
What about the childless? Give them a cardboard box and point them to the nearest overpass?
8
Recently I read that Marco Rubio and Ivanka suggest that people borrow from Social Security to finance maternity leave. That means there will be more broke widows and divorcees. The Republicans have been on a sugar binge of low taxes, borrowing, bank failures, and now we've got serial bankrupt Trump the stable genius. The bill is coming due.
65
@Carol lee. Another terrible idea if you call that joke an idea. Neither Ivanka Trump or Marco Rubio are known to be deep thinkers...LOL they pose and pretend to be other then what they truly are.....greedy ambitious poseurs & users who take and take and give nothing.
5
Save and save some more. Keep working. Vote for Democrats where you can. We've ---that is the great portion of Americans who are not wealthy and have to work/had to work are vulnerable. Unions have been chopped, bus transportation kept at bay while super highways are bult to accommodate others, and climate and our political climate are both polluted. Read and read some more. Excellent story on climate in NYT in this SAunday's paper. Not off target, rather another example why GOP is on the wrong side of everything.
22
"He said he and his wife, who has cancer, filed for bankruptcy in June after living off their credit cards for a time. Their financial difficulty, he said, “has drained everything out of me.”
President Trump: We will have beautiful health insurance for everyone, and cheaper.
\Another big whopper of a lie.
69
@Mgaudet
Beautiful health insurance: purportedly cheap with "great" coverage UNTIL you need it. Most of these plans offer little to nothing by way of coverage, making the actual premium cost EXPENSIVE.
8
Blame the Democrats.
They conditioned people to think, no matter what, the Government would bail them out.
Houses you can't afford to own.
Subsidized rentals.
Free cell phones.
Free medical care.
Forgiven student loans.
Food stamps.
Million and one discounts or free stuff for seniors.
Senior went from 65 to 60 and now it's working its way to 55.
It is so easy to buy votes.
8
@True Observer What's the Republican plan? Step over bodies in the street?
3
Ok, so the people who are covered by Medicare, are the people who are filing bankruptcy because of the staggering cost of out of pocket medical expenses, and there are people whose rallying cry is "Medicare for All!" Why? So we can all eventually have to file bankruptcy?
7
@TD
There are different components to Medicare coverage. Medicare A, B, C & D, each having their own focused coverage. There are still costs (deductible and co-pay -- all dependent on the plan one opts) that are the responsibility of the insured. Additionally, some medications do not have generics (resulting in much lower costs) due to term of patent, resulting in much higher costs, even with negotiated Medicare rate.
It is an obstacle course for may seniors to navigate the process of selecting healthcare coverage (Medicare A, B, C & D), as well as other supplemental options.
Voters MUST DEMAND change in the pricing of healthcare services and products. Many of the prices are OBSCENE, especially when considering the net profits reaped by Pharmaceuticals and their shareholders.
10
@TD Because it's at least some safety net. What we really should have is universal health care, like all developed nation's have. People in Europe aren't going broke because of health care costs.
10
A timely wakeup call for an aging generation and everyone else. My heart goes out to comments about all those folk feeling personal responsibility and shame for the reward they didn't receive despite the work they did. As other comments noted, they were shafted by greedy politicians beholden to rapacious forces. Unfortunately yelling Vote to NYTimes readers is coals to Newcastle; voter turnout in November should provide some clue to any hope for real change.
25
I hope this article is part of a broader examination of what happens on the other side of 50. Many people fail to understand that you have to save when you are young not just because it makes sense (it does) but because you may nit be able to work at that high paying job until you drop, through no fault of your own you may be unemployed or under employed or physically incapable of work and there will be no help coming.
30
@SW
When I was young and working as a clerk typist, it was impossible to save anything. I lived from paycheck to paycheck. To CONSTANTLY tell poor people to save for old age when they can't survive the moment, shows one's ignorance of reality.
14
The biggest risk to bankruptcy in old age is longevity risk. People are living longer than they ever anticipated. Medical costs have soared and social security is flat. Even if you were lucky to have a pension it was most likely not adjusted for inflation. Credit is easily available and as long as you pay the minimum or a little more each month you are in good standing. But even availability of credit can not last for ever.
Many of my friends, mostly women, are dealing with the same issues. Caring for 90 parents as you reach the doorstep of retirement your self. Many of us all wish the same thing. The ability to die with dignity at a time of our choosing. My parents are 92 and have lived much longer than their expected life expectancy and their money. There medical needs are such that Assisted Living is required. They are fortunate to have son in laws that have always called them mom and dad and have never thought twice about not financially helping them as the money and assets were spent on the necessities of life. But our retirement is here. We think about our children and the fact that we could go on for ever. Once the quality of life is gone we will opt for plan B.
20
Saving for the future is important of course, but you must have room in your income to set aside money in a 401k or some other tax deferred mechanism. And it has to successfully appreciate. And you need health coverage in the pre-Medicare period. If your employer is not part of Social Security or Medicare, you have to pay both sides yourself.
It is very easy to understand why bankruptcies are taking place. And, oh, cosigning student loans and the kid defaults. Guess which kind of debt doesn't disappear because of bankruptcy?
Subsidized single payer health insurance. Whoops! Congress and our dear leader have just spent the funds for corporate income tax relief.
End of rant.
35
Years ago I managed a team of software developers at an employer who offered a match on the 403b (non-profit version of a 401k). I gathered my staff together and let them know about the plan, but only one other employee (other than myself) decided to contribute. I kept hearing "we can't afford" to contribute (in this case only 4% to maximize the employer match); I responded that "you can NOT afford to bypass this offer".
The irony about saving and investing is, if you start early and put a modest amount regularly in an index mutual fund, you will get used to not having that small additional income, and over the years it really builds up. But most people I know don't take advantage of that.
AARP recently announced that, the average American couple will spend something like $280k on health related expenditures from age 65 on!
21
@ejr1953: It's nice if you have enough income to put into savings whether it's 401k or other. Also nice that you got a company match!
You don't seem to understand that hundreds of thousands of US workers don't make enough income to pay their bills AND eat. Credit card interest is higher than the interest on savings. So forcing money into savings is the same as forced credit card borrowing. It's rougher than you think.
11
@ejr1953 I know people who put as much money as they could in 403(b) (or for some 457) plans and lost most of it during market "corrections." By the time they retired, they had recouped very little.
5
Ladies and gentlemen, this is capitalism. Shared costs for health care, education and pensions -- aka European socialism -- would lift every one of these people out of poverty.
98
@Susan McKenzie Yes, at the expense of everyone else working who now living paycheck to paycheck - at best.
3
@Jane Doe: but with universal healthcare at least your monthly health insurance would be much lower.
1
@chamber You mean like how it is lower under obamacare? Good grief.
Before the advent of Medicare the elderly were the single largest age group in poverty. Medicare changed that. It's time to upgrade Medicare and Social Security rather than attack and contract it as Paul Ryan and most Republicans do in order to pay for their reckless tax cuts. The Baby Boom is turning into a Bankruptcy Bust under Republican health care and related pro-corporate policies. A nation that callously casts aside it's parents and grandparents is a nation without a heart or a soul. We need to update and upgrade the social safety net. That's not socialism or welfare, but old-fashioned human decency. We've had the Square Deal, the New Deal, and the Fair Deal; now it's time for a progressive Re-Deal.
92
And as we read these comments, Republican congressmen are using Trump’s distractions to silently and slowly gut Social Security and Medicare payments. One wonders how many of those suffering financially today voted for Republicans in the past. Some French guy a long time ago said that people who live in a democracy get the government they deserve.
27
When baby boomers were young and invincible, they enthusiastically espoused the ideas of Reagan and his party. This led to the dismantling of much of FDR’s social safety net, and to the savage cutting of taxes and the consequent gutting of most social expenses.
But the baby boomers didn’t realize that one day they’d also become old, and one day they’d also need expensive health care and a sustainable, guaranteed pension for life. Now the boomers are all panicking because they realize the scam that they were sold with high risk 401(k) plans and privatized health care.
Well, they should have thought about it before they all voted Reagan, Bush and now Trump en masse. I have little sympathy for those who for decades were following the “Wall Street gospel” and screaming bloody murder against “socialism”, only to find out today that those evil liberals had been right all along.
46
@Andy - Not all baby boomers voted Republican or for Ronald Reagan. Many of us saw through him. I'm not panicking. I'm an almost 71 year old baby boomer. The wife and I saved like bandits knowing full well that the safety net was dissolved and SS and medicare would be limited if not eliminated. Not to forget out state employee benefits that were gutted under Democratic administrations in PA. And the Democrats, my party, sold out all American workers sending jobs, industry and research and development overseas. There are many elements of change that caused the situation we're in. The political elements and voters too all have a hand in our economic, industrial, social and military decline. We've made our bed. Sleeping in it is tough and getting tougher. I didn't vote for Reagan. I'm sorry I voted for Bill Clinton, I wish I didn't have to vote for Hillary but she would have been better than Trump.
7
@Andy Don't blame the baby boomers for an intransigent congress beholden to Big Money. That was never a boomer thing.
16
@Andy I was under the impression that an awful lot of baby boomers despised Reagan. Where do you get your generalizations?
4
Not much reason for optimism. Its only going to get worse. The math just doesn't work for many. It will reach a crises level in the next 25 years.
10
We have been conditioned way too long in believing all of our children must have a college degree, come hell or high water. Didn’t much matter much what the degree was or what it cost Mom and dad. It was that it had to be done. Academia knew this and adjusted cost accordingly. Many of our younger adults that have all these wonderful degrees (who many aren’t even working now in their fields of study) could care less what is happening to the older folk. For many of them too are now unhappy, dissatisfied, married thrice, and are having a time of it making their own staggering mortgage payments on their condo or house too big. We see these things happen and wonder how or why could we have not noticed or seen the warning signs? We always believe things won’t change, that correction never occurs. But that is a big mistake. This is what we need to teach our children early on. That, in a capitalist system or society correction will and must happen in order to keep it healthy, and one must be ready for these corrections. But, academia is overwhelmingly socialist in ideology these days and preparation for correction isn’t necessary if they believe the government should, and one day will care for your needs. But we must remember, under a socialist society the government will decide what you will need.
8
(REPEAT of an older post)
I once interviewed a Republican candidate for office who opposed government-guaranteed health coverage for all. When I asked her what would become of people who did not have private health insurance, she replied, "Well, they'll just have to die."
There you have it.
183
@LarryAt27N
If what you say is true, you should name the candidate. Your comment does not ring true, although I am sure it is the attitude of most Republican candidates.
The ever expanding social safety net for those who milk the system and illegal aliens is more important to politicians than the needs of seniors who will die soon anyway. Reward a Dreamer with taxpayer dollars and you have a voter for life, a senior, well... Many youth of ALL races are NOT getting married but having children because if they get married the woman will lose her "rights" i.e. her rental assistance, food stamps, WIC, etc. We are encouraging this behaviour from those who have partners who are working and are fully capable of supporting themselves and their out of wedlock children. Priorities are decided by politicians looking for voters and votes are purchased with taxpayer dollars.
10
@worddust Wonderful, worddust! I couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks!
1
@worddust Of course, seniors are hands down the most reliable group to show up at the voting booths and actually vote en masse on just a few issues(medicare, SS) so your straw man premise that politicians throw them to the side is absurd. Only 70 million of them voted while your target demographic(or is it your "demographic" target?) of TANF mothers(dog whistle) barely show up at the voting booth. So, basically, your point that politicians are consumed with "purchasing" the vote of a tiny demographic that mostly doesn't vote(less than 46%) while sticking it to the largest most focused voting block doesn't really make sense as anything other than an emotional narrative steeped in "code".
2
Making senior poverty great again!
16
We live in a society that doesn't care about our young, or our poor, or about our old. Who do we care about? Apparently, middle-aged white rich people.
26
What does race have to do with anything? There are plenty of rich black & Hispanic people too
1
My sister who lost her husband 2 years ago, had hip surgeries,and is 66 years old will be filing for bankruptcy.She is living off of her credit cards,getting little assistance from her 28 year old who still lives with her.You know I think our country is turning into a place where if you're not making it you are going to be kicked to the curb.It just stinks that this is really bad when it happens in your 'golden years'
10
@Chicagoland
Did she work & save?! HAve life insurance on the spouse? Anything to avoid this besides wishful thinking?
So much for being the richest country in the world.
13
Inadequate savings is the key. Most people choose to ignore the fact that they will live for decades after retirement. They save little if anything, expecting Social Security to fund the same lifestyle they maintained before retirement. I have seen this scenario repeated over and over. Face it, most Americans live for today and refuse to think about the financial consequences that they will face tomorrow.
20
@Paul, who lives in White Plains, and no doubt has never faced real economic insecurity, STOP BLAMING THE VICTIM!
We have a capitalist system built on massive inequality, low wages, job insecurity, widespread unemployment, and part-time labor.
People are struggling to make ends meet. They work more than one job when they can, make decisions between paying for food and health insurance, and you're claiming they need to save more! They do NOT have enough money to do so.
Get out more and become acquainted with how the other half, well, the other 80% live! It's not pretty. You also deftly ignore the historical factors and analysis, including the assault on unions, the cutbacks in government programs and social support, outsourcing of jobs to low-wage states and countries, and the shift of rapidly rising health care costs onto the workers themselves.
STOP BLAMING THE VICTIMS!
64
@paul Yes, there are many who are financially irresponsible either through ignoring the facts or lack of planning.
Having said that, there are those, who because of low wages, lack of education, family illnesses, ignorance of the benefits of planning , high insurance and medication costs, increased costs of living, etc. are suddenly surprised when they are faced with the fact that the social networks are inadequate. Those numbers will increase as the "boomers" retire.
Our present government's choice seems to be "guns over butter" and lack of compassion and support for the honestly unfortunates. Governments make choices and we have made ours.
14
Once again, universal medicare can help. As a Canadian I never feared being bankrupted by medical emergencies. One of my less prosperous boomer friends just broke a hip. She is in the hospital receiving great care, and she has no fear of bankruptcy. I have the good fortune of a defined benefit pension, lifetime medical benefits for such things as dental work, a paid off house, and Canadian medical care. I can relax moving forward into getting older.
I believe it is time for the rich to quit expecting less prosperous people to run a charity for the benefit of the rich. More of the rewards of people's work should go to the working people. No one should work and not receive sufficient compensation to provide food and decent housing (looking at you Disney and Amazon).
118
I seriously wish people would stop posting this is all due to republicans. We got to this point with complicity from democrats. Democrats helped to repeal Glass -Steagall, have China join the WTO, offshore jobs , destroy unionized jobs, weaken social security and block universal healthcare.
I remember the times well and there were a lot of democrats, politicians and voters, who supported Reaganomics. I bet many of these seniors still would not support universal healthcare, they just want help for themselves.
28
Succeeding at retirement is a pretty daunting business considering the failure of the Fed, the SEC, and Congress to prevent bank fraud and protect Americans from calculated Wall Street conspiracies. Add to that injury the past ten years of almost zero interest on savings and its consequences and the skyrocketing costs of educating children and providing housing and support for children challenged by loans and rising housing costs.
31
Pensions are precarious, if they exist at all About all you can really count on is Social Security. State and local taxes are high. Life is more affordable outside the country in some places, but the grandchildren are then far away. And people are living longer, so savings don't go as far. I know people who thought that they were in good shape in 2007, then saw ae big investment hit in 2008-09. They sold out of the market near the bottom, and were too scared to get back in for the recovery. Their retirements we're permanently impaired.
15
@RM Not true: There a many viable pension systems still running today. Those that have been responsibly supervised. There are other pensions that have failed. But failed because they were looted or otherwise poorly managed by entities that profited when the pension went under.
3
my wife and I are both retired. our biggest single financial outlay is health insurance and medical costs not covered by health insurance. more than our mortgage ( which is relatively small ), more than utilities, more than food.
18
@VM - I'm retired too, and my biggest outlay is property tax.
2
Just a note, if you look at data on bankruptcy for the last 6 years, it's stayed pretty stable, i.e. 2001 2.9% vs. 2.8% for 2016. I definitely agree with our society should not be a place where bankruptcy for health care should ever be a problem.
8
Wait - isn't the economy doing great? "We are the economic envy of the entire world" said the President recently. The GDP is up, unemployment down.
I don't understand...
17
Income inequality is becoming very real. It shows up in different ways such as this. Homelessness in another extreme manifestations. Healthcare costs. You can trace it to the government policies over a long time, starting with Regan up to now with a large tax cuts for the wealthy tier. And you are surprised?
19
Apple etc who could have paid their employees and shareholders more all long. That is the BEST example that the trickle down theory of economics does not work. Given any opportunity corporations like people will hang onto every last penny. Corporations live longer, it will only work at badly for people...and we haven't even hit the singularity and out of control algorithms.
15
The economic policies put into place by and since Reagan explain all this, and predicted it. sadly, they just don't want to see it this way. This is an example of a group of people who will continue to vote against their own interests: older, white, working class.
12
This is a difficult issue--many comments refer to lifelong financial irresponsibility on behalf of a generation who benefited from probably the longest stretch of peacetime affluence in human history. Others talk about the decline of worker protections and social benefits that caused real and lasting harm to many. Of course, both are true. As the child of immigrant parents who saw a lot and had no illusions about a guaranteed, rosy future, I am often shocked by the lack of financial skills of those around me--it's like they are not living in reality. But then I see my boomer in-laws and get even more depressed. All my hard work may just go to bail them out one day, at the expense of the next generation. In every family, there are the responsible ones who are left holding the bag.
18
@Amv
And in society at large.
@Amv The system we started with was very different from yours. I wish younger people would think a bit about this.
And then, saving for retirement out of very little income just doesn't work.
12
@Rose Anne
You’re right, it was different. Housing was affordable, college was affordable, you didn’t have student loans, your job came with health insurance, most likely for your entire family, and you will actually get social security.
Have you looked at the younger generation’s problems lately?
Pay off all credit cards every month, pay off mortgage before retirement, don't co-sign for student/car loans for kids. Buy low maintenance, high mileage used car. Work on your marriage and health (divorce lawyers and doctors will make you poor). Consider relocation to low cost area.
33
@Alice Relocation to low cost areas is a very good idea. There are places in the upper midwest where you can buy a perfectly adequate 3 bedroom house for 30 or 40K. Usually, the towns are very Senior oriented, with attractive parks and activities that are low cost. There is also the possibility of work--the going rate to clean a house is $25 an hour....beats the dust out of $8.75 an hour in McDonald's. Anywhere there are seniors, there are needs for help--mowing a lawn, cleaning a house, doing handyman work. And it pays well.
3
@Alice
That is the biggest one, Alice. Low cost housing.
But now the low cost areas are being "discovered" and getting expensive.
Are older people supposed to keep running?
1
@Alice
Sound advice Alice, except where is the 'pay astronomical medical expenses' in this tidy plan?
I am a healthy 64 yr old, my glaucoma drops went from $145 mo. with insurance to $700 mo. without! So I now live 6 mo. a yr in Mexico where I pay $40 for the same medication and private doctor visits are $15. But not every older American can 'relocate to a low cost area' like I have!
7
Having gone through this myself after a devastating divorce I was scared to death. I had less than $200 in the bank.
I cobbled together a living working six days a week in various positions until I established myself in one place teaching classes and building a reputation one class at a time. It has taken eleven years to pick myself up and begin again. I can pay my rent. But vacations, dinners out and new anything are not forthcoming. The only thing I don't skimp on is food. I have become a political "preservative". That is someone who is fiscally conservative while trying to preserve enough brain cells and physical stamina to stay alive.
What galls me is that when I pay cash for the high cost of olive oil and vegetables at my local grocer the person ahead of me online, who doesn't speak English, whips out their government benefits card to buy sugary cereal, cupcakes and processed everything. My taxes, meager as they are, will pay for their healthcare in the future ,not to mention their food right now. But I'm the one who had to go through a bankruptcy. What's wrong with this picture?
21
@A.A.
When we ruin people's countries by criminal wars and economic manipulation we take on certain responsibilities at least to a minimal degree. Paying for the consequences in even a small part is not a measure of balance, it is an admission of guilt.
5
@Dave
It's easy to take the liberal line, but I have to honor A.A.'s point. I believe it is a sincere one, although I would not agree it is only people who don't speak English that get free stuff.
In my opinion, NOT listening to people with opinions the liberals don't like is what got Trump elected.
Let's not do that again.
Because another 4 years will bring on much more elder poverty. Nobody poor is getting rich under Trump.
@A.A.
I feel your frustration and pain; however, one shouldn't jump to conclusions about the person with gov't assistance. You, yourself, recognize that you do not skimp on the food you buy as a means to preserve your body and mind. Did it ever occur to you that the person with gov't assistance may not be able to buy the quality of food you opt because of that monthly allotment?
You may want to take time out and visit a grocery store @ the beginning of the month. Look at the endcap and middle of the aisle displays -- many stocked with the products you mentioned. The processed, sugar-packed items are affordable and fill the bellies of such families.
With regard to receiving gov't assistance, I believe recipients should be required to learn English (oral and written with adequate degree of proficiency) and said classes be conducted by NPO/s especially churches, at little to no costs (think grant funding) at a minmum...
1
To all those Americans commenting about lack of Universal Health Care, these are all 65+ individuals who have access to Medicare and Medicaid which is more or less equivalent to what Canadians and British have. The problems lie elsewhere, including a high divorce rate among baby boomers, a life style choice which involves no savings, study after study has revealed that majority of Americans do not have $ 400 saved for an emergency. Whatever little retirement savings these people had were decimated in the bubble after bubble the Federal Reserve inflated in a misbegotten effort to rescue the economy.
13
@Rahul Medicare is not equivalent to the NHS. It is essentially a major medical program. You also need to purchase a supplement, not cheap, and even with that does not cover , e.g. Rx.
8
@Rahul
Medicaid is a state by state thing. The carpenter might better have stayed in NYC and not moved to Arizona.
2
The Fed and obamas administration Did save the economy. The only error was allowing the victors to steal the spoils, with little aid to we the people. Without the steps taken, we would have gone into a second great depression.
It would be interesting to see the impact of the Great Recession and the non-existent interest on savings accounts and CDs.
People can make poor lifestyle choices early in their lives, maritally, financially and health wise, that explain their old age misery.
But even wise individual choices can’t prevent all misfortune.
For those without compassion, I hope you don’t live in Tornado Alley, an active fault or fracking zone or any other place affected by the forces of nature.
24
Bankruptsy causes include: "vanishing pensions, soaring medical expenses, inadequate savings..."
BUT ALSO: stagnant wages, soaring college debt, a profit motive health care system, shrinking unions, a capitalist system that puts profit before people, inadequate minimum wage, irresponsible fiscal policy by the Fed (i.e. zero interest rates), a consumer culture that demands growth, debt as a financial tool.
92
This is the future the Republicans wants for every American. No health care, no social security, no home, no life.
153
@Ronny And if the Dems get into office the country will go bankrupt with the government paying for everything on the backs of the overtaxed workers and we'll end up like Venezuela. Which do you want?
5
@Ronny, Both parties were and are complicit in our national financial disaster. 20+ trillion dollars in debt? Good luck with that.
3
@themoi - How about cutting the Pentagon budget? The biggest welfare program in this country and notorious for wasting money.
We have been used. After a lifetime of producing, seniors have enabled those with capital to have it all. Capitalists, corporations, have taken and never paid "their" share.
Banks own most of the %houses. Mort-Gage means until death. We pay doubling school taxes based on land ownership, but banks don't pay "their" percent share.
We have been subsidizing diminishing incomes with 0% loans. Now, the stock market is too hot. Tax stocks and capitalist day trading. Pay those school taxes with "their" capital.
Bank of America owes every taxpayer $1000. for bailing out "their" failed bank in '08. "They" are sued by the FDIC . for not paying "their" share. Seniors can produce capital thru bankruptcy, just like BofA and Mr T!
21
“This life stuff happens.”
No, it does not. Stop using credit cards and signing for your kid's college loans.
23
I am surprised that funding a lifestyle with credit cards (vacations, dinners out, refurnishing homes, etc.) was not mentioned in the article. Some Americans think they are entitled to such things.
Certainly this is not the case with all of these seniors who are now facing bankruptcy but the ease of access to credit cards is possibly a key factor here.
7
The costs of healthcare have skyrocketed. If a person does not have a supplementary healthcare insurance program, that donut hole gap of 20 percent will bite the marginal finances of retired folks, esp. women who are in the generation of home makers who never learned how to manage on their own. How many retired women I know in Florida without their marriage soon became poor, a situation they never understood before, during or after it happened. A small day surgery can cost 50K in Florida, a mere 15 minutes in an operating room. 20 percent of that and they are sunk. Children who are disabled or unemployed themselves are hanging onto to the elder parents taking their additional funds. I have seen this and it is real.
30
@Phantom
Maybe those women should have worked & exerted themselves a few decades ago.
3
Many companies did away with defined pensions and replaced them with 401s. Congress approved of these changes. Most 401s do not provide enough income in retirement. Also many elderly do not have a good secondary health plan if a major health crisis strikes. This leads to greater expenses.
If only we had the same retirement system as Congress.
46
@JAB
In many cases the employees voted to replace their defined pensions with 401 plans. They were blinded by their greed and the scam of inflated 401s. At the time there were many articles written about how people with pensions were going to be paupers when they retire while those with 401s would retire in luxury. Now those who opted for the 401s are hateful of those who kept pensions.
2
@Hellen Who voted to replace their pension with a 401K? I never got to vote. We had pensions and were offered to also start a 401K plan. Eventually the pensions just disappeared. There was no vote. No one would vote to lose a life-long, post-retirement, guaranteed sum for an instable savings plan.
@Jane Doe
Yes they did allow many employees to choose 401s over pensions. How soon people forget the touting of 401s as a way to become millionaires at retirement.
Why did people choose them? At the time the returns on pensions were being ridiculed and people opted for risks over a guaranteed pension that would be smaller. It was due to greed and at the time greed was considered good. Then came Enron and later other 401 meltdowns. Funny how people now have selective memories.
As I read these comments, I think of something we did some years ago. We went to a fee-only financial adviser. It was one of the best moves we ever made. Like most of you commenting, we really did not have a good handle on our finances, 401K plans, etc. We did know we didn't want to end up like some of the people in this article and comments. Financial advisers are NOT only for the wealthy because we are certainly not wealthy. In fact, the less wealth you have, I suspect the more you need someone with financial expertise. If you go to an adviser and they try to sell you something right away, be polite, say thanks for your time, and leave. I cannot stress fee-only adviser enough. It will be money well spent.
30
Greater uncertainties in life of older Americans could explain the bankruptcy booms. For the chosen period from 1991 to 2016. From Bush senior through Clinton through Bush Jr until the Obama years there was a recession, higher unemployment among the baby boomers, high level of credit card borrowing, increasing health care costs due to procedures that were not common before 1991, increasing cost of living especially in megacities, increased legal costs due to divorces (with one in every 2 marriages resulting in divorce), increased life insurance costs due to premium increasing with age by 100%.
But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes........ Benjamin Franklin. When one considers one's income as a pie chart and then start taking out the federal taxes, state taxes, sales taxes, city taxes, property taxes, social security tax, medicare and medic aid tax, fuel tax, cigarette tax if one is a smoker then start reducing the pie further with all different type of insurance, home, car, health, life etc. The final I in the 3 Is, Income tax, Insurance is the Interest on loans. Chipping away at the Pie after meals and clothing is not even a slender piece of the pie but pie crumbs (to use the term borrowed from Nancy Pelosi).
How does one expect older Americans to save when all that is left for elder Americans from their earned income to save for a rainy day, is not much? Tax sheltered IRAs have been the only limited way. Double the limit to 12K.
9
@Girish Kotwal there was no recession during the Clinton years. One of the best economies every. Bush Jr took care of that.
11
@Carol lee. If you read my post carefully I am talking of the period between the chosen years 1991 to 2016 indicated in the article where there is a 204% increase in bankruptcy for the ages of 65 -74. I know that the recession of Bush Jr. I lived through it and saw the worst decline in my retirement savings. So please read the article once more and read my carefully worded comment that in no way associates the recession with the Clinton years. Although he did raise taxes and his first two years in office were tough times for Americans.
@Girish Kotwal - They need all those taxes so they can pay Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Yes, they are taxing the recipients to pay for the programs. You send your money in, and they send some of it back.
1
This is the GOP ideal of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps all you seniors love to vote for, so time to lead by example. It’s by your own rugged individualism and and superior moral fiber that each person for their own has such optimal outcomes. Good luck and happy retirement. Livable wages and unions, such nonsense.
28
This was part of the reason I walked away from the Republican Party. Ronald Reagan was dedicated to destroying unions and as they fell, excellent benefits also toppled, especially the private sector pension. If we want to make America great again, then restoring unions and private sector pensions should be part of that design.
Before we pretend that our economy is doing well, we should look at creating a minimum livable income level for seniors so they are not stuck in poverty after a life time of work. A part of that reform would be lowering the cost of healthcare for everyone, but especially people on fixed incomes who are still spending a big part of their social security on rent or mortgage payments.
We can and should do better by our seniors, it won't be long before anyone reading this will reach retirement and we don't want to live in a world of poverty.
68
@Joe Barnett
I was never a republican but I do remember many democrats supporting Reagan and his policies. That is how he won a historic landslide victory. I remember it well and thinking how can be people be so gullible and vote against their own interests. People need to wake up to the fact that BOTH parties created this.
27
Yes we should, but as an X’er I have some righteous anger. The boomers sold us out, giving up unions and selling our future out to try to save theirs. To the point all we have is a self funded 401k. We had to put homes and families off for student loans, do not have healthcare for retirement, later retirement ages, and lower social security payouts too. So before I ante up more for the people that neglected to care about my future, I’d like an apology.
2
Some people just don't do financial planning. They spend more than they make and live for today 100% of the time. Then they declare bankruptcy and say "look what The Man" did to me". On the other hand you can't always anticipa te the cost of the unexpected and may not make enough money to save for it even if you could. You might feel secure but it only takes a job loss or serious illness or some other calamity to put you on the path to bankruptcy.
16
People don't take advantage of the investment options available to them, and there are many. Why invest 6% of your income in a retirement portfolio when you can lease that SUV every three years. Then they suddenly wake up at seventy still holding a mortgage and end up living in the SUV.
20
God bless you if you are able to invest 6% of your income. That is not the case for the average American, and not because they’re driving SUVs instead. Most are living paycheck to paycheck to pay for home, food , transportation, insurance, medical, supporting families, trying to survive. Many of us are a layoff away from devastation. Grateful for all I have today.
59
@Cleo48
Yeah, that is the ticket. If everyone was just smarter we wouldn't be taken advantage of by those bankers and corporate health insurance companies and their teams of lawyers.
9
@Vic
Hogwash. The first 3pct into a 401k doesn’t even make a diff in take home pay because it’s offset by lower withholding. And anyone who can’t shave another 3 cents off every dollar of expense isn’t trying.
Canadian medicare varies from province to province...our constitution. In BC there is some limited pharmacare with a very high deductable. If you are at all above the poverty line as a senior you get zip. But if you end up with high costs you may be covered. Many people purchase private extra medical for dental and prescritions. Not every drug is covered but this can be appealed. Dental is not covered but people on medical welfare get a small amount of coverage yearly. There is limited physio coverage if you are low income. But our cancer care system is wonderful. We do acute care very well. If your condition is not acute you will wait. So the breast cancer patient will not be bankrupted
9
I am Canadian and had to move to the States for work though I thank myself each and every day I am Canadian. This article is sad, horrifying, and I wish more Americans would realize how consistently they vote against their own interests. I am praying for each and every vulnerable elderly American!
26
At age 64, I would have to agree that the main cause of 'Senior' bankruptcy and financial insecurity is medical costs. Not only our own but those of our parents. How many my age are caring for their parents who have their own medical problems. My father's alzheimers was 12 years long from the first signs to his death. Helping my mother care for him involved being there i.e. not a work and helping with the expenses involved. Even after my own retirement, all day spent caring for my father then also my mother after a stroke and loss of mobility.
Like good GOP little soldiers, we baby boomers did what the GOP has always argued for, we took it upon ourselves to handle the problems within our family. It has been at great cost to ourselves.
We do not seek to be rich. We did what was right and would do so again. A little help would have been nice.
Now I/we have our own health concerns to face. So another 10-20 years of unknown costs coming our way. Getting old is hard these days and does not seem to be improving.
122
@Elizabeth I'm a baby boomer, too, and I so agree with you. However, not all baby boomers were "good little GOP soldiers". Please consider leaving the GOP behind this year. Give the Democrats a chance because, for sure, Trump will not help anyone not named Trump.
2
I fear things are going to get much worse. Too many both in USA and UK are part of the "gig" economy. They earn barely enough to survive and many need two jobs just to achieve that. They can make no provision for any sudden costs or their old age. Until the wages for the lowest earners are increase by quite a large amount this state of affairs will continue.
Before the days of Reagan and Thatcher the percentage increase in income was the same for rich and poor and above the rate of inflation. Since then the incomes of the rich have risen at a rate more than it was but the income of the rest has not risen in terms of inflation
46
As someone who has a foot in each pond, I can tell you that the US and the UK are very similar as far as employment and inequality go, but nobody in the UK goes bankrupt over medical costs. Healthcare, for the most part, is free; some charges are there, but they're minimal. And before anyone jumps on the GOP "nothing is free" bandwagon, UK healthcare is financed by employment and income taxes. They are higher than the US, but not markedly so. The outrageous cost of US healthcare is because so many of its practitioners and constituent businesses are making out like bandits.
20
@Anthony Taylor - But the UK spends only 9% of GDP on medical care, compared to nearly 20% in the US. And their per capita GDP is lower than ours.
Strong UNIONS would save these people. For those that vote republican I have no pity because they got what they asked for. But for rational people caught in that situation they need relief. I hope the younger generation will fight for UNIONS like my grand parents' generation did, to protect themselves. Do not forget that corporate america spends millions in its efforts to destroy UNIONS.
128
all very very true.
The natural result of: the change employers made from pensions to 401(k)s; our health insurance system; cuts in safety net spending; and our market economy having periodic meltdowns. In the late 1970s/1980s when I started college, no parent co-sign was needed, so if the college grad doesn’t make ends meet now, it’s a bigger problem than just deferring payments for a while. Why can’t the kids make it? That points to even wider issues with our system.
36
As long as people vote Republican, Americans who work for a living will never have a future. We will never live in a decent country that provides health care and elder care and doesn't gouge people for the medicines needed to maintain life. Our children will not be able to afford college, or own their own homes. Our working hours will increase and our benefits and salaries decline, because the wealthy are robbing our tax dollars and lives with the help of the Republicans, the Russians, and the racists. We will live and die with debts that our salaries will not enable us to repay and the rich will blame us when we declare hopeless bankruptcy instead of strategic lawyered bankruptcy to avoid paying workers or taxes. I am ashamed of my country and its cruelty to those who have worked and paid taxes all their lives, and those Republicans who always blame the victim and turn a blind eye to the robber baron economy their votes support. If you work, wake up. Vote your pocketbook in November. Vote for the healthcare to save your own life. Vote Democrat. Vote!
224
our country, through its votes, has decided in effect to give most of the national income to the military and the very rich, leaving relatively little for the social safety net which affects both the elderly and families. That's the beauty of democracy, we get what we ask for, and this also include deteriorating infrastructure, ugly sprawl, a dangerously changing climate, and racial tensions.
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@Barry Schiller
The voters have been brainwashed. They were never competent to vote, to discern truth from lies, to vote for Congressional term limits, to understand what is purposely made complex by the very richest. Corruption has been sown into the American fabric so well, people buy their own deaths.
Through my work career, I never made a lot of money. However, I lived modestly, sacrificed and saved, and now I am well set up for my retirement. In other words, I made the correct choices. I think we need to start educating people that retirement planning begins in their 20's, not their 60's.
32
@TravelingProfessor
You forgot to mention that you probably also had some luck, either through a stable career, good health, good healthy family or whatever. Social safety nets are there in case luck doesn't work out.
33
@TravelingProfessor
Exactly. And that no one is automatically entitled to produce offspring.
9
@TravelingProfessor thats all well and good,but what happens when your health goes south and your co pays are eating you alive?
7
At age 49 when I began a new career working for the Commonwealth of PA the offering for high level managers with a master's degree in finance or public administration included full healthcare for retirees after 15 years of successful employment. Then along came Governor Rendell. First he began to eliminate civil service positions and full time jobs and then he hired thousands of consultants to take their places. The theory was that consultants received no retirement or health care benefits, just a salary and no state contributions were required. So, the heart of experienced civil service workers, scientists, engineers, chemists, doctors, nurses, accountants and other professionals left to become consultants...at 3 times state pay paid for by the state. Then Rendell determined to save more money by limiting full health care retirement benefits only to those who worked first at least 18, years and then 20 years. Rendell also froze state workers wages, increased premiums for health care and then reduced vacation and paid holidays. The teacher's pension programs had funds withheld by the state and began operating with losses. Those losses were increased by hiring consultants and outsourcing work reducing contributions to pension and health care funds even further.
I retired age 65. I did not qualify for state paid health care benefits under the new rules. My health would not allow me to work 3 more years. It now costs me and my wife $600 a month in premiums. It hurts a lot.
47
Your story reflects many experiences of many Americans. Hard working, doing the right thing, only to be downsized and outsourced to consultants. The gig economy will continue to erode income and benefits for future generations.
10
@John What is deeply troubling to me is how the "fake news" asserts that Republicans gutted benefits of workers. Not completely true. Rendell is a Democrat. And, Govenor Tom Ridge, Republican, expanded retirement benefits for state workers and teachers. Donald, as much as I loathe him, has it right. There is a lot of "fake" or at least misleading and incomplete news and reporting. It is the facts and history left out that is the core of fake news. I worked for 17 years and just missed the cutoff for full health care benefits. The Democrats engineered this and the news medial failed to accurately report what happened to thousands of state workers and teachers.
It’s pretty simple, “you reap what you sew.”
Tens of millions of old, non-college educated white people voted for Trump, who has instigated a trade war that is raising the cost of goods while at the same time crippling American businesses that rely on exports for sales. Trump has also put a Justice on the SCOTUS that helped pass a 5-4 victory for opponents of organized labor. They’re even talking another round of tax cuts targeting the ultra-rich while wages remain stagnant.
I believe it all boils down to racism and xenophobia. Our country has been at war for 17 years. A person who is in their 60s today would’ve been in their late 40s back then. 9/11 was obviously a cataclysmic event in US history, but it’s still so recent that those events are crystallized in the minds of older Americans. I believe that’s why Trump’s rhetoric worked so well.
I believe it also plays into why older whites think the way they do. They live in insular majority white communities. So even though they struggle, they vote for politicians who cut social safety nets because they don’t want the “others” to receive benefits. They’re told that “others” are a drain on the system, and they believe it. I believe that there aren’t any impoverished whites against social safety net programs. They just don’t want minorities to receive the same benefits they do. This leads them to vote against their own best interest all in the hopes that minorities are hurt worse than they are. They’ll never admit it either.
81
Don’t you mean sow?
18
@JJ,
You are technically correct.
But despite what Bureaucrat Number 1.0 from Futurama says, technically correct is NOT the best kind of correct.
@Austin Ouellette: That is crazy lefty hysteria. Social Security and Medicare are BELOVED by all seniors – the “third rail of politics” (touch it and you DIE) – and there are no current plans nor legislation to change or cut benefits. Paul Ryan has RESIGNED from the US House of Representatives and will not be in politics after January.
SS and Medicare are entirely 100% “race blind” – nobody gets “more” by virtue of being white or black – so the idea that somehow “evil old white people” wish to cut off THEIR OWN NOSES to spite “some black folks somewhere” is factually untrue – and your own form of “racism”. Hating white people is RACISM TOO!
1
In all the fuss about the ACA, Medicaid and so on the real root cause is the high cost of health care. This is what needs to be addressed by public policy. How is it that hospitals have atrium lobbies? How is that doctors have the nicest of all office buildings? How is it that so many hospitals are expanding with massive new high rises? We are paying for all this. And not getting the best healthcare outcomes!
41
Wrong. It’s the “for profit” aspect of health care that is the root of the problem.
28
@Joe Smith Private hospitals treat doctors like gods no matter what. You don't see that same thing in county hospitals. I've worked in both and I always felt private hospitals were just smoke and mirrors. I was afraid to speak up in a private hospitals most of the time because I was afraid of being fired but I never felt that way in a county hospital.You say we are paying for all of this but the majority of us do not want to go to a county hospital if we can help it.
6
@Joe Smith Ten years ago when I had a work related neck injury (I'm self employed), my insurance company denied all my claims for the treatment, surgery, physical therapy, etc., because the original diagnosis/treatment at 2am in the ER was not pre-approved by them. When I realized I would be shouldering the rest of the care out of pocket, one of my attorney friends told me top inform the hospital and doctors in the future that I had no insurance and wasy paying out of pocket. They said "Oh, in that case" and they cut the price IN HALF. That's how much more it costs to deal with insurance companies. This was before the ACA.
1
This is the tip of iceberg and we just starting to see what will become a national catastrophe. Savings for average Americans continues to dwindle and fewer and fewer families are able to care for elderly parents and the very expensive care that sometimes goes along with it. In general, people have not saved nearly enough earlier in life. Yes, health care costs and lack of pensions are part of the problem but doesn't explain all of it.
When a significant number of Americans can't afford an unforeseen $300 expense, we have a problem and it's not just a lack of personal responsibility (although that is part of it too). The overinflated stock market is an indicator of just how much the US is living in the moment without a care in the world towards the future. These stocks didn't get to be where they are without folks by goods, services, and mortgages that they really can't afford. My parents would have never allowed themselves to buy a $5.00 coffee - ever. Couple this with a decline in union membership, pension insecurity and funding issues, soaring health care cost, people living longer, meager wage increases, and a government bent on removing safety nets well, we a disaster looming.
40
@JeffB - Hi Jeff. On the money. Just to add, it was the 2008 economic debacle that set off the whole debacle. People lost their jobs, homes, savings, went bankrupt. If you were 50 you were toast. In the meantime, Wall Street was rescued by the government - increasing money going to the wealthy while the middle class collapsed. You nailed it, "we are a disaster looming." Not difficult to understand the nihilistic tendencies under way . . . or the election of you know who. Panic.
2
Very powerful and informative article. I had to first count my blessings for 'Democratic Socialism'. I am fortunate to retire on a NYC civil service plan. But there is another sad component to this story. Everywhere I go in Alabama I see senior citizens my age (67) and older working at minimum wage jobs. This is not like the fun work I am doing in my garden, this is: "I need to do this to survive work". The Republicans are hostile to any health program with the word 'Obama' attached to it, and so many of these seniors admit that they are only working for the health insurance, or to pay health cost if the job does not offer health insurance. Finally, the other downside is that these 'force to work seniors' are taking jobs away from the highest unemployed groups (Black and White young people) in the state.
20
Those poor people in other states were likely forced out of New York by the state’s ruinous taxes that support your Cadillac government pension. People have been fleeing New York for a generation. The population hasn’t fallen more because of foreign immigration. 100,000 people a year leave New York for States with lower taxes. That you laugh at them suggests government workers in New York aren’t just greedy, they’re cruel.
7
@Michael Johnson
"Taking away jobs from the highest unemployed groups" is not a fair assessment. Many companies, that provide meager wages, opt for older workers because (1) higher probability of good life skills and work ethic, (2) higher probability of better/more education, (3) need for employment to meet basic life necessities & (4) easier train, thus more reliable.
5
Is anyone surprised by this reality? I bet not. In our society, we pay lip service to many things. We like to think we're taking care of our most vulnerable citizens, but in actuality, we aren't.
Older people simply aren't valued in our country. We don't like to show them much in movies, commercials (unless, of course, it's for a Big Pharma pill ad,) or pay a lot of attention to their needs. It's so much easier to farm them off to an old folks home or pretend they don't exist.
How many times has the COLA for Social Security been stagnant or held back? How many times have politicians tinkered with Medicare, and in effect, cheated seniors out of much needed services? Dental care, anyone? Shortened hospital stays? Denied medical services? PBM's who constantly fiddle with the availability and cost of our medicines?
It's difficult to save for the future or stay solvent, when the cost of food, housing, medicine, medical services, and other necessities increase constantly and dramatically. Most of us are one disaster or problem away from total financial collapse.
Knowing full well that others are increasing their wealth at our expense is the truly obscene part of this equation. It appears the only way to remedy this despicable situation is for seniors to take the problem in hand as a voting block, and rid our country of any politician or political party that doesn't respect us or our needs.
The sooner, the better. Our lives depend on it.
30
The AARP used to be a force to be reckoned with. I wonder what happened.
16
We just went through some of the best stock market runs for the past 30 years. Other than those who were hit by medical/surprise expenses, a lot of these people just didn't save. Anyone at any wage, can allocate something. God helps those who help themselves.
12
There is something deeply, profoundly wrong with a country where investing in the stock market is something you need to do in order to avoid bankruptcy as a senior citizen.
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@AR
Why?
@kevin
It seems that there are points to this article that have been missed: (1) use of funds to help family -- which was common practice in the days of our grandparents; (2) the stock market and its runs did not trickle down to the "average" worker -- those who really benefitted are savvy individual investors, investment houses serving clients with resources to invest beyond their basic needs; (3) the "average" worker are employed by companies that have either cut back on benefits (which our grandparents and parents received as the norm) or do not have the capacity to provide such benefits; (4) many are employed in low-paying positions, making salaries that often times do not meet the household need, thus making it too difficult or almost impossible to save for the future, let alone an unexpected emergency.
9
Class warfare has been ongoing and workers have been taking a pounding over the past 40 years.
69
Why not look into retiring in Mexico? It's a lot cheaper than the USA.
10
Never,law and order is not so good.Moreover it's traumatic for seniors making such a blind move.Not advisable unless one has kin there.
5
@Joseph
Re: law and order in Mexico... over the past twenty years of travel in and around Mexico, despite what you have been fed by US media, I have found that unless one is looking for trouble, one rarely finds it. I certainly feel as safe on the streets of Mexico as I do in Dallas.
And there is very little that I would characterize as traumatic in relocating to Mexico (or Chile or Peru or Costa Rica), unless you consider having enough cash for food, rent, and healthcare to be traumatic.
I have no family in Mexico. I am not of Mexican heritage. I just object to uninformed fears being passed on as fact.
@Terrible Sixties: you can get your SS check by mail anywhere in the world, but you can only claim Medicare benefits IN THE USA – you cannot get them to pay for your care in another nation.
3
I suppose the effort to make people individually responsible for more of their own retirements and to individually bear the risks of their own retirement assets must be working and that the increasing rates of personal failure prove it. But if bankruptcy is supposed to allow a fresh start, how is that very useful for the elderly? Perhaps there can be little chance of any financial recovery for them.
4
The next trend will be these people committing suicide to avoid being a burden to their children.
But, hey, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan would contend it's better than socialized medicine.
121
Yes,this is a possibility and hope the state provides the minimum safety net to avoid this trauma. NGOs too could help and we too if one is relatively well off.
5
Mr. Micawber (David Copperfield) had it right, then and now.
"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." - Charles Dickens.
18
This is the new normal. Try getting a decent job once you get laid off at 50 or 55. It is next to impossible. So you end working for $10 an hour but you still own a home, have kids, have bills, and then you have medical bills. If you don't have a pension you need a few million in the bank to live frugally until you hit 85 or 90. And pray you don't need assisted care or you might as well dig your own grave. This is America folks, the stark reality for many of us going forward. And everyone is so concerned about the illegal immigrants? Let's take care of our own first.
105
@Anita, undocumented workers pay into our system through payroll deductions, but they will never be able to claim any benefits. So they're actually a net positive to Social Security and Medicaid because they're paying but will never benefit.
4
One reason seniors go bankrupt is that it helps them qualify for greater government benefits. If you put your assets in a trusted child’s name and go bankrupt, you may qualify for Medicaid, government supported senior housing, food stamps and much more. Some people make a strategic decision to become penniless and rely on the government primarily and the “children’s money” as a back up.
7
@Rick Medicaid goes back 7 years in a person's finances. Medicaid is a state run program. Its true there are people out there who play the system young and old,but being in your 60-70's and have little resources to lean on its troubling.
3
Your Kids can always borrow for College, but you cannot borrow for Retirement. Just say NO. I've seen several extended family members and work acquaintances in DIRE straits because of this. Seriously.
20
I’m entering midlife, and looking down a career change. I’m at that point where I’m realizing that I only have limited time left to get a masters degree, so I don’t get a mulligan on my major, and my career change may be my last, so I need to make a good choice. (Not too long ago, in my twenties, options seemed infinite.)
Thanks for this article. I’m thinking the most important thing I might do is run for Congress with the main goal of universal healthcare for all. 30 years from now, I don’t want to end up like the older adults outlined here, and it’s clear that no matter how responsible I have been or will be, I can still end up in their situation - facing increased drug costs (and forgoing drugs), clinging to a mortgage, filing for bankruptcy. No one should face that in their golden years.
18
Meh, these are the preboomers and older boomers who overwhelmingly voted for Reagan and thought greed was good. They often voted out their pensions and voted for Enron style 401k plans. Thanks to them we came very close to shutting down social security or handing it over to wall street which would have been the same.
Yes there are philosophical disagreements between segments of boomers and as a younger boomer I argued with them over the years. They were the ones who denigrated me for not being a Reagan democrat and they are the ones who use to brag about how they were going to retire as millionaires. Now all they do is whine and cling to their social security checks.
18
The overarching issue with seniors' need to declare bankruptcy for older Americans begins and ends with the implementation of investment in 401(k) plans to replace defined benefit pensions offered by employers. The percentage of workers in the private sector whose only retirement account is a defined benefit pension plan is now only 4%, down from 60% in the early 1980s.
The chimera promoted by the GOP to allow people to "choose" how to invest their money for retirement meant that whenever the stock market takes a hit, as it did in 2007-08, whatever "retirement savings" individuals had invested in declined by between 20 to 50%.
Compare this with an employer-employee contribution defined benefits pension with the non-guaranteed version of a 401(k). In the former, the employer demonstrates its investment in its workers by contributing to the fund and guaranteeing retirement income; in the latter, the employee bears the entire cost of investment with no guarantee of sufficient funds to survive at retirement age.
For anyone who depends entirely on Social Security for income, this is clearly unsustainable. In 2018, the average monthly Social Security payment is $1,404-an annual income of just $16,848. The federally-defined poverty level for two persons now is $16,460. Given that older people have significant increases in medical expenses and may still carry a mortgage on their home, bankruptcy is inevitable.
This is a truly deplorable state of affairs. Thanks s lot, GOP!
32
One of the biggest factor that is killing the elderly is inflation. What ever nest egg is build, the value is lessen as we age. The government and local municipalities don't help either. They keep hitting us with higher and higher tax bills, e.g. real estate tax due to their over inflated housing values, which is a illusion.
I have said this out loud to myself many a times "I couldn't afford the house I am living in". Ok, lets just build that wall, which we can't afford and give more tax breaks to the 1%. Keep cutting back on healthcare, who needs to be healthy anyway. I hear longevity has been going up. Shame the ones for allowing our kids to stick us with these huge student loans and their dead end jobs. No everyone is college material.
18
This is a frightening article. It is the tip of the iceberg, for sure. The shift to putting the health and retirement safety net onto individuals continues apace with the broad-based attack on the wages, defined-benefit pensions, and health benefits of public sector workers. Now taxpayers are being pitted against the public sector workers. It's not an accident. It's a strategy promoted by conservatives, "free market" capitalists, libertarians, and the wealthy investor class. Is anyone surprised that cutting capital gains taxes is foremost on the minds of the Trump Administration. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer and angrier, looking for someone lower on the food chain to blame. Democratic socialism is looking better and better as time passes.
36
Under the Rendell administration the Commonwealth of PA severely reduced wage increases, pension contributions by the state, and health care benefits. The administration also increased the number of years of service required to retire with full health care benefits thus severely affecting seniors who reached age 65 but didn't have at least 15 years of employment. Rendell raised the requirement to 18 and 20 years and now it is at least 20 years. State workers and teachers were also required to contribute more for health care premiums and general retirement while wages remained stagnant. So, if you came to work at the State when you were age 45/47 but your health failed and you had to retire at age 60/62 there is no health care coverage. None. Work until you drop dead or go bankrupt. In the meantime Social Security has been stagnant as have been benefits of Medicare and costs of health care, Medicare premiums and everything else has also gone up. There is no longer a safety net under both Democrat and Republican administrations.
Self reliance regardless of economic hardship and decline is demanded by hardliners who feel entitlement programs are too generous and encourage people not to work. Never mind that we paid into these programs since many of us have been teenagers and young adults. Bankruptcy law has been changed too and there is little or no relief under those changes.
We're headed for an economic melt-down for seniors and others. Shifting risk is a failed disaster.
24
The corporations and the rich have taken trillions from this country.
Let's now double the social security payout. That plus free healthcare and a $25 minimum wage.
For all the fearful naysayers - trillions to the banksters, the military, the rich, and the corporations - why not trillions to the People?
The corporations and the rich and the military and the banks will just take it anyway.
And, since corporations only pay 9% of total tax receipts (which they get back as subsidies and tax breaks), whose money is it?
38
The United States is becoming like Tanzania, where a few people at the top of the economic ladder own 99% of the wealth. Is that the nation we want for our children and grandchildren? Vote in November to stop this insanity.
51
As a consumer bankruptcy lawyer, this article confirms my observations, especially over the last decade. One of the tragic sidelights of this mess is the fact that many of the elderly who end up in bankruptcy use their credit cards to pay the medical bills until they are maxed out. So, statistically, the "cause" of the bankruptcy is credit card debt, not the true cause, medical bill deluge. The medical providers shamelessly promote use of the cards to pay THEIR bills. At first it is only by way of prominent "suggestion" on the statements. Once the claims go to collection, the telephone harassment offers relief in exchange for a credit card payment. And as long as the minimum payments are made, the bondage is simply sold to the banks.
One other important point: many of my older clients were staying on top of their bills UNTIL a spouse dies, and the second income, Social Security or otherwise, disappears. Suddenly, a budget that allowed the ship to stay afloat is underwater, with no possible solution. Other than Bankruptcy. Thank you for exposing this growing disaster for the vulnerable elderly.
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@Bob Morje, Attorney
Shouldn’t people plan for how the surviving spouse will manage?
4
@Kosher Dill
Alas, this is too often overlooked or not considered. One would think that a trust would have been created during the working years, with committed contributions, whether monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or annually (especially when considering any bonuses and/or income tax refunds that may be available).
All too often for many, living expenses, the lack of financial discipline, little to no financial literacy education & not really thinking about the future contribute to such dire realities for many now.
A very, very sad story. Not clear, whether the seniors face bankruptcy because of the Keynesian economy or their lack of knowledge of financial planning.
7
@Tuvw Xyz
I would very much like to know where the taxes that Americans pay go, do not go to health, do not go to education go to who's pocket?
3
@kelen abreu - In the Federal budget, 75% of the spending goes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That's nearly $3 trillion.
My husband has been laid off three times, twice due to a change in company structure and once when an earthquake destroyed the company’s structure. We made money from two real estate markets, but lost it through a child’s disability as we chased an elusive diagnosis and sought successful treatment. Caring for this child’s disability and coping with it also knee-capped my ability to work for income.
Since the last lay-off, husband has gone on countless job interviews, been a finalist for many, and finally taken a job as a grocery check-out clerk. He has volunteered and go on over a thousand networking interviews. He struggles to feel valuable, searching for any way, even small ones, to “take care of” his family. Many times I think of the The Death Of A Salesman, and the battle cry of Willy Loran’s wife. “He's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person."
We are so close to catastrophe, and college looms for our disabled kid and a younger sibling. I pray for a huge wave of change in our political climate. Attention must be paid.
222
@Tutti
Everyone contemplating parenthood should ask themselves how they would manage in the event the child is ill or disabled. It’s not that uncommon.
6
@Kosher Dill: you of course, have no children.
What will happen when YOU are old, ill or disabled?
Tara, why didn't you make any mention of personal responsibility in your article? Age 70 and a mortgage? How did you expect to pay it off? Sadly, she is also separated, and the number one factor in staying out of poverty is getting married and staying married.
Co-signing for student loans is mentioned. I cannot help but think of my own fellow employees who co-signed to send their children to out-of-state public schools or private schools when in state schools and community colleges would have been much less expensive. Why don't people stop to think that co-signing a loan means you may have to pay it off yourself?
According to the survey quoted in the article, two-thirds of seniors filing for bankruptcy "put some blame on hounding by debt collectors". I don't owe creditors money, and amazingly don't get calls from debt collectors! But, no mention of personal responsibility from the Times writer that not paying contracted debts results in calls from debt collectors.
Sadly, you cannot save people from their own poor decisions. I watched many people buy boats, campers, etc. instead of saving for a rainy day. Yet, the left wants to punish through punitive taxation merely because my wife and I planned for a rainy day and for our retirement.
20
@Ron Wilson
Exactly. I see so many RVs rotting in driveways or storage lots, so many big shiny new cars, so many other depreciating toys. So many tattoos. Their owners better not complain to me.
12
@Ron Wilson
People's circumstances are often affected by their decision-making. Decision making can be compounded by other circumstances, such as government, economy, luck, health, etc, and family issues. If you have been lucky enough not to be affected by any negative factors such as these, and have been able to save for a rainy day, you are a lucky man, as well as a prudent one. The point of the article was that these people were affected by a lot of factors outside of their control. Why not read it again?
11
@Ron Wilson - Ron, you nailed it. All should teach their children the power of auto-deducting a potion of your pay.
6
follow this article up with that one: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/05/opinion/what-are-capitalists-thinking...
OSU football coach is on paid administrative leave making 7.6 million dollars. Per year. To coach a public university's football. Health insurance executives make 50x more than that per year. Apple is worth trillions.
And Trump is considering cutting capital gains taxes even further.
And yet? We hold on to this myth, a completely fabricated myth, that the middle class exists and that failure to thrive is the failure of the individual.
341
@Kelly- so what your saying is you expect the government to bail you out? if you didnt thrive, whose fault is it then?
4
@kevin I don't think she was asking for a bail out, but hey the government has bailed out big businesses and given them breaks all the time, so why not?
More Americans will face bankruptcy without Obamacare.
68
Just think how much worse off these struggling seniors would be if they didn't have social security and Medicare? Social security is a defined benefit plan, i.e. the benefit does not vary with the performance of the market. This is a stark contrast to 401(k) plans and other defined contribution plans. For the love of God may America never privatize social security!
115
From the outside, the USA seems so brutal, and the comments here just reinforce that. Apparently all these people going bankrupt because of medical bills or whatever deserve it. Women who gave up work to care for aging parents definitely deserve bankruptcy. Parents who helped their kids to get an education - shame on them. The divorced and the unemployed? Grifters, all.
238
@Fenella -No i dont think that is the gist of the article. I agree with you there are exceptions to the rule for sure, but the BULK of these people just didn't save.
I do feel for those who did save but were over powered by a life event they could not have predicted.
2
@Fenella Trust me, it looks that way from the inside too. Definitely turning into a dog-eat-dog mentality.
5
@Fenella
We are a compassionate lot when confronted with large disasters, i.e., those on the front pages with headlines and photos and news coverage shoving the wretchedness of hurricane/earthquake/tsunami/wildfire victims in our faces so that we cannot look away. But seeing the day to day misery of the person working and living check to check (forgoing healthcare/dental care, never dreaming of an actual vacation); or the elderly eating Ramen in order to afford monthly medication co-pays, we become suddenly myopic. Those who have never lived check to check, or lost their entire 401k savings to catastrophic illness or the latest recession, rarely appreciate the empty hopelessness of those who have experienced those things. Humility, unfortunately, is not a virtue of the indignantly self-righteous.
2
Donald J. Trump could care less about these real Americans. Trump is concerned about his America within America, pop. some 52 million, who are aiding and abetting in the dismantling of the America we knew for the long term benefit of a few. By 2020, the realities of Trump's ineptitude and open corruption will hit home for his 95% (ers) as they realize his Barnum & Bailey, Vinny Barbarino shtick was a distraction. Do not feel sorry for or have pity for his 95% (ers) when they begin to hurt as badly as you are now. They earned every minute of it.
13
Well, it is a sad story to read about this carpenter. At the same time, I wonder how as a union member earning kings ransom style hourly wages - nothing was set aside.
I am an engineer whor worked in the oil patch for 40 plus years. Now pushing 70, I have a sizeable nest egg that I could do without drawing my company pension or social security.
And I was not some big time manager with hefty bonuses.
I was lucky that I started young - saving that is. Compounding was one concept my old manager. Dick Calloway - I still remember his name 40 years later - taught me. Getty had an employee thrift plan. You put 16% of your gross salary and they would match up to 6% of gross dollar for dollar in their stock.
Mr. Calloway explained how good this was with compounding. And I never ever not contribute full 16%. Yet, I knew many of my peers who never participated fully.
And that compounding power is letting me stay good now and for years to come.
Another thing in America, we are way oversold on owning property - oh yes, that morgage deduction. I owned properties but no longer. Upkeep, hassle and not to mention property taxes. Along with house ownership, we accumulate and accumulate - and often that equity loan. It's money down the drain.
The NYT carried a story from Sweden about their "spring" cleaning. Like the Swedes, some seniors need serious "spring" cleaning of their habits if they did not use that power of compounding to begin with.
12
@Neil But you have a pension. Most of us do not.
11
@Neil
Certainly wish you all the best Neil, but your comment reminded me of my 89-year-old uncle in Arizona who passed away this past year and was forced to file bankruptcy in his final years due to medical debt. He too was an engineer and worked well into his 70's because his expertise was much in demand. All his life he planned, saved and invested and carefully managed his accumulated wealth but in the end he had no choice. I know it was not something he ever thought would happen to him.
18
These are the people who should be paying more for their health care, according to the GOP, and who should be receiving less in Social Security. It appears that the Republicans want to trim the elderly population by letting them die from hunger and illness. That is not the behavior of a nation that has a decent respect for the opinions of mankind.
30
I think there was a time, not long ago, when Medicare was free, and Social Security was not taxed...the good old days!...
16
This article indicates why health care needs to be central to the democratic party's appeal to voters in the special elections this year and in the presidential election in 2020. The degree to which the party can show that for all of its bluster over the years, the current party in control had no answer to the shame of not providing adequate health care coverage for those who are vulnerable in this society, including those who have spent their lives working to have a decent and livable old age. Blaming the failure to come up with a viable solution cannot be placed on one person who is now battling his own illness. The blame game coming from the top will not work. The democratic party must fight on this front--keeping the affordable care act in place and enhancing it where needed. That has to be a central focus in the current campaigns.
27
These bankruptcies are a direct result of the massive increases in health care cost, extreme increases in payroll taxes and an age discrimination of older workers by corporate America. It's not complicated at all. Government workers have been shielded by taxpayer dollars of those Americans who have paid taxes all their life.
12
@Matt Could you explain your last sentence concerning the shielding of government workers? Otherwise, the sentence adds nothing to the conversation.
1
@Dan
He meant to say that many government workers work thankless jobs for below average pay and then get to retire from that thankless job and live with a little comfort.
Sad indeed! We've had to sell our family house to help cover retirement expenses for my mom who now needs constant care.
And hits isn't just happening in the US. A major shift overhauled folks retirement all over the world, including here in France where I've been living and working. Folks worry and worry about the amount of retirement because it has gone down (some of my clients that had retired at 60 decided to go back to work because of debt and/or mortgage) since the last economic crash, and soon most won't get more than 400€/month as retirement. Impossible to live on this unless you set up some kind of retiree housing. If you, or even Mr B Sanders, thinks France is a model, think again - we pay and pay into the health care system, are over our heads with social charges. Nothing is free. Where's the money for folks when needed? Beats me! And French are big consumers and abusers.
8
This article covered some excellent points that new retirees face, but only briefly touched upon and underlying factor that may drive many more into bankruptcy and ultimately affects following generation. This factor is the cost of a college education. It's not uncommon for a 4 year degree to cost upwards of $200 -250K. A tier one college even higher. Post graduate costs can be an addition cost of almost 50% of the undergraduate costs. If parents pick up 50% of this cost via Parent Plus loans that's an additional financial burden of $100-150K per student that we take into retirement. With the student carrying the balance.
In a country as rich we are this financial burden is unconscionable. I don't expect free college for all students, but our government should be able to afford low cost loans to parents. Parent Plus loans should not be 4-5 points higher then the prime rate. The future of our country will soon be in the hands of these young students and funding education is as important as a strong military.
18
@VMG Seriously? $200 - $250K for a four-year degree? Where? Not at a public college, particularly if one attends a community college and transfers. And graduate school can be even cheaper with assistantships. Most college degrees can also be completed part-time. Unless one is going for a medical degree with a guaranteed high income, it is absolutely ridiculous to get into that kind of debt. I have very little--if any--sympathy for anyone who gets into that kind of debt over college.
7
@MMNY
I got a graduate degree from a Big 10 university for free by working as a TA. Monthly stipend & health insurance, too.
It can be done. But you can’t be lazy.
@Kosher Dill: what was that, 30 years ago????
In @1992 my company cashed me out of the defined benefit pension plan and put all personnel ( we were personnel then, a person, not a human resource, which sounds more like a thing) into a defined contribution plan. We knew nothing about the stocks and bonds markets or how to invest. Many of us baby boomers were trying to raise kids, save for college, advance our own education, buy a house, deal with aging parents etc. Now a new and complicated project, manage our own pension money so that 30 years into the future we would have enough to live on. Many of us had absolutely no educational background for this.
116
Since health care costs is one of the major causes of bankruptcy Medicare for all would be a huge step toward solving the problem presented by this article. Plus the enormous administrative savings by having only one insurance "company" would pay for increasing the number of insured.
16
The problem is government only takes money from one group and gives it to another, it doesn’t earn any money. In this case, the government would take money from those who saved for retirement and give it to those who didn’t. Free Medicare isn’t free, it would cost somebody sharply higher taxes. It’s pretty to imagine those sharply higher taxes would be paid by some bloated billionaires, but the truth is the sharply higher taxes would be paid by you.
3
Unfortunately many people think that Medicare is free for those who qualify for it. Unless you also qualify for Medicaid, it isn't. At the minimum it will cost close to $140 per month and if you want the freedom to see any doctors you want, you'll have to buy a supplemental plan costing at least plus a drug plan.
The answer is a national healthcare insurance plan like other industrialized counties have. But of course that's socialism so let's keep capitalism, in which there has to be winners and losers, in healthcare.
6
The stock market crash wiped out my retirement savings. I'm 74 and there was no time for me to recover. Many are sharing that adventure with me! Seemingly, the bail-out of the big companies but not the people has been forgotten.
71
@esm
HEllo? The market has rebounded. Did you panic and sell against all conventional advice? That is not society’s fault.
10
This "life" stuff doesn't have to happen. These bankruptcies are a direct result of Republican policies over the past 35 years that demonized universal health care, lowered the corporate share of federal tax revenue from 33% to less than 9% today and allowed corporations to dump any responsibility for their worker's retirement after a lifetime of service. US corporations have been recording huge profits yet the Dotard and his Republican minions in Congress give them even more tax cuts. It's time for the pendulum to swing back towards US corporations paying their fair share of taxes to the federal and state coffers. Vote Republicans out of office this fall.
134
For those who are shocked at the numbers of senior citizen bankruptcies , I would like to say “ we haven’t seen nothing yet” . Wait for the Koch brothers’ sinister under the radar plans of further eroding social programs to fruity . Until the very top in the income /wealth ladder protest of being tired of winning ,the process will continue. In the meantime the smoke screen of “ no collusion, making America great again immigrant bashing “ will distract us from the reality. I recommend “Democracy in chains “ by Nancy Walker for pastime reading and remind us all including myself of the upcoming Nov elections.
35
I am puzzled by Lawrence Sedita's bankruptcy due to loss of health insurance, for one could easily switch to Medicare at the age of 72, plus may qualify for Social Security, albeit if you are working at a reduced rate of payment.
9
@Arctic Ox most Medicare plans have premiums and copays, and it can be hard to find needed specialists in one's area who accept it anyhow. There is also a great deal that is not covered at all. In New York, just surviving spouse social security is too much income to qualify for Medicaid, which covers more. (If you have the resources to do a complicated/costly living expense trust, you MIGHT be able to qualify for Medicaid ...)
2
Good question... he had in-force insurance.
@Arctic Ox I had the same question, but the main point he made was about his prescription, maybe he hit the donut hole.
3
Many of us think a magical force is going to swoop in and rescue us “someday.” It will fill our bank accounts and fix global warming too. When I see folks with elaborate tattoos I often want to ask them (but refrain) if they’ve got matching funds invested in their future selves.
14
@Carolyn
Spot on.
My favorite are the ones who pump out offspring & then complain they can’t save.
7
@Kosher Dill and @Carolyn,
the ones with elaborate tattoos and who pump out kids are the absolute worst. s
I never lived beyond my means. I was laid off one year before I could collect max social security.i an a degreed accountant and when they see your birthday they do not want to hire you. I have been on a lot of job interviews but no one wants to hide someone that will be 65 in a few months. so, I now have a part time job paying 10.00 an hour. I'm fighting with unemployment because they stopped my benefits due to a small bookkeeping job, I. which I make 300.00 a month. I have taken in a roommate who pays 700.00 a month. i was a single parent most of my life. he never paid any alimony or child support. it is hard to save on one income. my job never matched any 401k contributions. I got kicked off cobra this past July. not eligible for Obamacare because I made too much money and I can't afford to pay cobra until I am medicare eligible. so, all those who think we did not save enough....that is not my case. life is a struggle when you get older.
75
Sad stories about individuals don't help much--and can even be misleading--in understanding why older Americans are sliding backwards into the poverty that social security and Medicare were set up to prevent. Unless someone can find evidence that today's older Americans didn't "work hard all their lives" the way their parents did, the explanation for this slow disaster lies elsewhere.
From where I sit, the cause is two-fold. First, shifting responsibility for financial planning for old age onto individuals--something accomplished under the guise of "freedom to control your own money," but really about letting investment firms get hold of more money. It turns out (duh) that financial investment was clearly beyond the capability of many Americans--most of whom, mind you, are essentially innumerate. The second cause was the massive shift in income distribution in the United States that's been taking place since the 1970s. This shift is a result of tax policy, pure and simple, and it sapped the wealth of the middle class.
Even if one argues globalization was the root force driving these changes, the effects of globalization could have been greatly ameliorated were it not for the Republican party's success at protecting and increasing the income and wealth of corporations and the rich.
What's desperately needed is a tax policy aimed at reversing our massive income inequality. Alas, so long as Republicans are in power, this isn't going to happen.
254
@Emile I agree with everything you wrote - Just wanted to add a few more items to your argument: The Republican assault on worker unions (stagnant wages), the disproportionate (and still rising) costs of healthcare and education, and the rise of corporate sponsored right-wing media outlets built to confuse and divide us.
1
Baby boomers worked harder than the so-called greatest generation! We have worked since age 16. Both people in a marriage worked and yet we still coached our kids teams and ran Brownie troops. When school funding fell off, we started educational non -profits and managed them while working. As we watched our parents retire comfortably and drain medicare, we are being advised to postpone SS till age 70 and paying high medicare premiums our parents Did not.
Blind faith can be a problem, too.
My sister in Canada was a highly-paid professional and has a decent pension, plus healthcare expenses are not a concern, but she built her life around religion and family. Her church always got its 10% and she believed that her children and god would see to her needs in her later years. She gave them every extra dime she had, including her inheritance.
Now she's 70, chronically sick, living in a crumbling old house, and dead broke.
28
I live in Wausau, Wisconsin and volunteer at a community food pantry. It is heartbreaking to see how many senior citizens come in for food assistance. I had one lady tell me she does not know what she would do without the food assistance.
38
@JoMama721
Food banks need all the help they can get, because it breaks your heart to see the people coming in. Put a few extra cans of something nutritious in your basket every time you go, and drop it off. You never know who needs help -- it might be you, in a few years.
"Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, help the lame to walk."
10
You are turned down for Food Stamps if you "own" your house. Unfortunately, if you aren't selling your house, it is just a huge debt that keeps getting bigger.
3
Some of these people deserve better than what they get. Their political stripes mean nothing. Complaining about the system does nothing, but demonstrate the hypocrisy of well off Times readers! I’m a boomer and have not done a single thing for the senior disadvantaged. Society hides desperate seniors except for the old drunks on the park bench who disappear to potters field.
What would it take to setup a seniors go fund me page? Poor living conditions, especially medically depleated seniors could honestly use the help.
The new support model today, is not a federal and state handout anymore. The new model is entrepreneurial in nature, using infinitesimal amounts of the vast wealth many Americans have amassed for the neediest.
Think about it. If you or I could see and know exactly for whom your donation was going wouldn’t you give? That’s been my excuse all along, especially not wanting to subsidize organizations who spend more than they give.
I wonder what the NYT could do? They got me thinking at least!
8
Forget the Times; it’s not about them. This is about you, and society as a whole. If you want to step up and help disadvantaged seniors, or any other struggling population, then put your money where your mouth is and do it. If organizational transparency is a legitimate concern, then there are plenty of charities that are upfront with their financials and how they distribute donated money, and it’s not terribly hard to research those organizations and see if they meet your qualifications before donating. If nothing fits the bill and you want to fundraise for seniors on your own or help them in some hands-on way, do it. If you want to bring attention to the plight of struggling seniors in your community, do it. A lack of organizational transparency isn’t standing in your way and neither is the Times and its ostensibly well-off readers: you are.
12
So many conspiring factors.... And as we adults take out loans for college tuitions in the 70k per year range so our kids can get ahead. Getting second mortgages that we can never pay off. Why is there not more pressure on colleges to lower tuition? .
10
@Kerry
Colleges usedd to be state-supported. Then taxes were cut, and they became state-assisted. Now, after another series of budget-cuts, they're state-located.
You want tuition rates to be lower? Fight to restore educational funding. And tax the wealthy.
14
In the future this will only get worse. Overf 20 million undocumented workers not paying FICA or social security, will not receive any old age income.
11
A lot of undocumented workers are paying into SS and Medicare. Also paying taxes. But they will not be able to collect these benefits.
25
@Pepperman
This is exactly backwards. Not only do a very large share of undocumented workers pay into the Social Security system, in addition, under current law, they will never see a penny of benefits. Report on this issue from the US Social Security Administration at this link: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/NOTES/pdf_notes/note151.pdf
15
@Pepperman
The future is now. Because those 20 million undocumented workers are being deported, their FICA contributions no longer help fund Social Security for current retirees. Entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are being undermined by the current tax and immigration policies that many of the seniors, who are now struggling financially, voted for in 2016.
6
It's very scary indeed.
It's even more frightening when you've done the right thing and have saved, to realize you may be worse off.
I make around $90K. At 60, have about $444K in a 401k, will get a small pension, about $19K a year. It's the best I've been able to do. Employer doesn't offer any long-term healthcare plans. Currently, I help my 80 yr old mom with her expenses every month, as she only has SS.
I work in News. Between the daily shootings and Trump, it's not the best career anymore. Might retire in 2020 or change jobs - if anyone will hire me at 62.
We should be okay, my spouse and I. But if (when) one of us gets ill, we will have too much income for aid, and not enough to pay for full-time nursing home care. Try to stay healthy.
The Republican plan of hope & prayers to solve problems seems lacking. Using my tax dollars to fund ever larger tax cuts for the 1% isn't helping me, my family or my community.
Now Medicare for All - I'd pay more in taxes for that, wouldn't you?
87
@D. DeMarco
What did you and your spouse spend your incomes on, to have so little saved at your age? Two incomes, a booming stock market and only $400k?
3
@D. DeMarco You and your spouse are in good financial shape compared to most seniors. You don't mention real property ownership which is the nest egg of most Americans unless it is mortgaged to the hilt.
Most Boomers will not get a pension like you as their retirement resources were transferred to their own planning back in the 1970's via the 401(k). As to long term care there are LTC policies. They are not cheap but until recently (may have changed with Trump tax law) the premiums were deductible if you itemize.
5
@Kosher Dill
Mortgage, food, cars, utilities, one income - never said my spouse worked, over $3K a year to my mom.
I've saved between 10 to 15% of my income every year - what have you done?
4
"Driving the surge, the study suggests, is a three-decade shift of financial risk from government and employers to individuals, who are bearing an ever-greater responsibility for their own financial well-being as the social safety net shrinks."
I love the way this is worded. What, exactly, did everyone expect to happen? The famous phrase "The problem with Socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money" isn't just a trite saying, it's an axiom. And yes, SS is other people's money.
No, Tara, the problem is not that there is a financial shift from "government and employers" to individuals, the problem is that the burden was EVER shifted from the individual to anyone else. The American citizen would be MUCH better off if the if they had always been responsible for their welfare. The mere fact that it was shifted meant that people had a false sense of security, assuming someone, somewhere would be there in their old age, rather than learning to delay gratification, these people bought their big houses, bought their new Mercedes, spent thousands of dollars on vacations, etc., etc. And much of it incentivized by the government... what do you expect from people who tell the populace that it's SPENDING that drives the economy... from a financial industry government BY the government that increasingly was incentivized to hand out loans to bad risks? To stick a credit card in the hands of every American all because failure was not an option?
6
@Duncan So then the fed would also immediately stop all subsidies to farming, mining, dairy... and the kibosh would slam down on lobbying for special interest groups, too?
13
@Duncan claims that older Americans growing financial problems are due to their wild spending habits, what with their purchasing of big homes and expensive cars. And, of course, he complains that they also failed to save because they were anticipating (and thus relying) on the fat paycheckes they would receive from Social Security. While one can always find someone somewhere that fits this explanation, the sad reality is that many of the afflicted seniors are in this situation because they really never had the means to save enough for their old age. And it is not getting better. and last time I checked, no one can really live large on the $1400 typical social security monthly check.
10
@Duncan
Well ... this at least has the virtue of being honest about what Republicans and mega-donors want. Now, start campaigning on killing Social Security and Medicare, and we'll see who wins elections. There is no amount of gerrymandering a voter suppression that makes this platform a winner at the polls -- you'll have to out-and-out end all semblance of democracy.
3
What kind of country are we? We need to guarantee that medical expenses will not to lead to bankruptcy for anyone, regardless of age. Instead of cutting taxes for those that don't need tax cuts and spending way more than is necessary on defense, we need to guarantee reasonable health care costs for all citizens.
28
@delmar sutton
What kind of country are we?
we are finding out and it ain't pretty. But Truth is still Truth. The question for all of us is... once we know the truth... what are we willing to do about it?
2
The greatest gift my parents gave me was a debt free college education. (community college followed by 2 years at private schoool to save money). At the advice of my father, I began saving for retirement at age 22. I am on track to retire with $3M.
Taking on 100k or more in debt to get a college degree is lunicy. We hold education as the key to our childrens future, but it can quickly become the cause of a myriad of financial problems. Your education choices should include a sober cost/benefit analysis. And im sorry, but financial aid in the form of a loan, consigned by parents, is not helping.
Try Community college,military scholarships, employer funding plans,etc. Your future self will thank you.
25
I agree that community college and the military are sound options, but some families still regard them as shameful or options for kids that just can’t hack it. When I was in high school 19 years ago - at a middle-of-the-road public school, by the way - none of my friends were even considering those options, and the mother of one classmate made it abundantly clear to the other parents that private school was the only option for her son: under no circumstances was he going to a public college so there was no point in even applying to one. Among my fellow graduating seniors, the only kids who went to community college were the ones who had basement-level grades or those from families who had no money. Aside from the boy who got into West Point, the only people from my school who joined the military were two guys who joined the Marines almost right out of high school. One was a guy who basically wanted to do nothing else, and the other joined up after he got his girlfriend pregnant midway through his freshman year of college and had to drop out in order to support her and their daughter. His type A parents were humiliated, but the Marines took a cocky, immature kid and made him into a respectful, responsible, mature adult. You can’t put a price on that.
Although it’s two decades on for me, I imagine that some attitudes about community college and military service haven’t changed, and they should. They are solid, sound options for students and families in today’s world.
8
@Lindsay K not sure about the military but attitudes about CC have definitely changed, even among upper middle class parents.
It's easy to say that those in such a situation have only themselves to blame. There are so many circumstances that make it difficult, if not impossible, to prepare for old age. Divorce, job loss, health issues, caring for elderly parents, these things all take a toll on the ability to adequately save. At 66 I am still paying off a student loan I acquired when needing to go back to school to get an advanced degree to supposedly increase my earning potential. It didn't. I will be working until I am no longer able, luckily (or not) I am self-employed and my job is not age-limiting. Could I have saved more? Probably, but still not enough to be able to retire nor do I regret any of the choices I've made.
5
This demographic voted for Trump. Let them work at McDonalds. With a MAGA hat. Meanwhile, as a 1%er, my investments are turning hundreds of thousands into millions. We will eventually get rid of Trump. But the political shift will be too late for 10 years worth of octogenarian burger flippers.
18
@Agilemind Yes they did but it impacts most of us and causes pretty much universal suffering for the non 1%.
Vote in 2018, vote in 2020.
8
You need to save your money. 30 plus years of saving and owning a home should cover your needs. Let this be a lesson, if you're just starting your career. Use your money wisely.
15
If you just start working you will most likely have a good amount of college debt. Jobs with good incomes are usually in areas where real estate is expensive. Young people can’t even by homes anymore at the age baby boomers did. Stop blaming individuals for these situations. Ever heard of societal contracts? Universal healthcare is the answer. Why people vote against their own best interests with be one of the biggest mysteries to me. Maybe it takes more prayer
5
@Martti Actually, seniors should be prepared to leave their paid up houses in many parts of the country--my property taxes are $15 K a year for a nice, but scarcely palatial house. In my case, I'm able to work until I drop dead. So, I like "stuff." That means I need to work to pay for it, including the house. When I'm very old and unable to keep up the income stream, time to move into a cheap little place until I die. That's life, these days.
4
Health Care seems to be one of the, if not the greatest common denominator in these terribly sad stories. How does the U.S. compare to other countries that have a better safety net for the elderly - these other countries provide free or affordable health care.... we can point at many other contributing factors - but affordable health care is a must if we are to take care of ourselves & each other in life & older age.
36
Denial, death and divorce; Many boomers have denied getting older and the need for planning 20 - 25 years ahead. Medical progress has us living longer and keeps us able longer, driving more denial by avoiding death. Divorce in your 40 or 50's makes wealth accumulation extremely difficult for middle and lower class people.
10
Until outrageous medical expenses are brought under control, even older Americans who plan well face this threat.They need to be protected from the for-profit medical and insurance system. We all do. What kind of medicine goes from $70/3 mos to $1100/3 mos for a valid reason? A mistake in judgement or an illness should not negate an entire life of working.
89
A round of breast cancer will throw you into bankruptcy. The sheriff takes your home and auctions it out to pay the hospital. After that you are homeless.
110
We were immigrants. We grew up poor. In 1983,while already in her late 40s, my mother went to a local community college and became a licensed practical nurse. Then a registered nurse. Then she bought a house with a 15 yr mortgage. She lived very modestly and saved and saved. No fancy car. Few extras. By the year 2000 she had paid off the house. Today in her 80s she lives very comfortably with nice savings. It isn't easy but it is possible.
By the way, why are elderly people allowing themselves to be stuck with their kid's student loans? I paid off my own. Took until I was 40 but it is possible. Can't imagine having stuck my mother with that. Despicable!
33
@T Your mother has been lucky with good health, had she not been, despite all the hard work, she could very well have lost her comfort and nice savings.
10
Americans have been living way beyond their means for decades. Today, there is huge personal debt (yes, lots tied up in mortgages which will likely become reverse mortgages) and health care costs and the cost of living are taking a toll on most families. The now-well-known statistic that most families couldn't dig up $1000 if an emergency arose is symptomatic of how expensive it is just to keep up in the U.S.
The U.S. is a Potemkin fantasy: yes, it "looks" good, but there's something deeply flawed in the economic system today.
20
@mrfreeze6 U.S. capitalist economy is driven on consumer spending--now grown to insatiable appetite for cheap goods made in China (by essentially, Chinese and brown-skinned slaves). Many moving parts are needed to make over-consumption hum along.
Consume. Collect. Hoard. Repeat.
Storage facilities hold stuff people do not have room for in their homes. Lives & a culture out of balance.
5
I'm not sure I feel too bad for Boomers who didn't save or plan adequately. They lived through some of the best economic years this country has ever seen, voted for tax cuts and cut services to younger generations, lived far beyond their means, and they still complain?
16
Lets see now 1991 versus 2018. The difference is exactly 27 years. Lets called it a generation. My parents faced old age in the 1990s. I face old age in 2018. What is the difference. Both my parents were protected by unions. They had what you would call job security which allowed them to plan for the future: They knew they would have a steady income plus all the benefits negotiated by unions when they started working which for my father was in the early 1960s and for my mother in the 1970s. So not only could they accumulate wealth (time value of money invested), but they also had guaranteed medical insurance and income after retirement. Neither had a very large salary, but it was pretty much a sure thing. The difference between my parents generation and my own is real simple: Job security.
117
@CBH: my father in law worked 42 years in a union steel mill, and retired in 1992 with a full pension and "health care for life".
WHOOPS! the steel mill went bankrupt and defaulted on the pension and ended the health care program completely, two years after he retired.
Come now, you have Medicare and if you say have plan F, you pay nothing for health care. It does not cost that much unless you have a disease that requires very expensive pharma. Now when you live beyond your means for decades this is what happens. It is sad, but has happened for a long time.
8
@vulcanalex: Plan F has copays and deductibles, so it is not "free".
However, it is decent and affordable. EVERY US citizen can have this at age 65 -- why does this man have no Medicare????
1
We can blame the increasing poverty of many older Americans on the replacement of pension systems with 401-ks but, that's a bit naive. I've been in a 401-k all of my adult life and have just retired as pretty darn well off. Why? because I actually did what I was supposed to do - I saved my maximum allowable amount money every month, invested in mutual funds and never sold out - even in the market dips. The problem isn't the 401-k structure itself (after all, many public pension funds are in deep trouble as well). The problems ares that Americans don't like to save for the future adequately (we've known this for many, many years) and that most just don't know or care to know about personal financial management.
So, the real beauty of the pension system was really that you just didn't have to do anything. You worked and then the checks started appearing magically after retirement. Well, that world has been gone for almost 30 years now. It's a bit late to be shocked by the resultant change that people just failed to embrace. The opportunity to do well has been there but, many people just preferred to spend their money on boats, iPhones and whatever else made them happy on the road to "retirement".
16
@Michael: it's NOT GONE for PUBLIC EMPLOYEES like lazy whinging teachers....who get 90% of final salary in a pension at age 52 PLUS free Cadillac healht care!
WE taxpayers pay for this, but get nothing like it ourselves!
2
I hate to sound callous but I’m guessing that most of these folks are suffering due to porr decisions in their part. Why would you agree to co-sign on your child’s student loan if you can’t afford it? I’ve never paid a finance charge on a credit card in my life. If I can’t afford something, I don’t buy it.
25
@JP I think the problem may be that the cost of a college education has risen much more quickly than wages. I was able to finance a master's degree by working at the university and using the tuition benefits offered to employees. I received a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University with no student debt. This was in late 1980s. It would be impossible to do this now. Tuition has risen exponentially since that time so that the tuition benefits cannot begin to cover the cost and these benefits are now taxable. Yet a bachelor's degree is a basic necessity for getting any type of professional job and in many fields, such as teaching, a master's degree is required. That is probably why parents took out the Parent Plus loans that have very high interest rates.
6
Yes, but. So many people who cannot afford private universities, opt to go to one and get into debt. I’ll never understand taking out loans for a private university while state universities are affordable alternatives. For a Masters in Education, does I matter if your degree comes from Columbia or CUNY? Of course not.
6
@JP Then you've obviously never needed to put an ER co-pay on a credit card. Good for you.
It seems to me like the social safety net has been functioning for Mr. Sedita. He is a 74 years old former carpenter who has been collecting social security disability benefits since 1991 (age 37 or 38). Then in 2018 he filed for bankruptcy to relieve himself of debts incurred beyond his ability to repay.
The article fails to state the following information that would be insightful for readers to have: (1) the ratio of Mr. Sedita's monthly debt payments to monthly income before filing for bankruptcy; (2) the total amount of debt that Mr. Sedita had discharged from his his personal balance sheet in bankruptcy; and (3) the ratio of Mr. Sedita's monthly debt payments to monthly income after filing for bankruptcy.
If the bankruptcy helped alleviate his financial straights, then wasn't the availability of the bankruptcy option the needed and successful solution?
16
@Pennsylvanian Also the claim that he lost his health insurance does not make sense. Probably lost some heavily subsidized supplement and Part D or heavily subsidized Part C. He is most certainly eligible for the Medicare most elderly have.
7
@Pennsylvanian And a two pack of drywall isn't that heavy. I would love to see this "debilitating injury" myself.
5
@Pennsylvania Mr Sedita's problem is that the safety net that was functioning does so no longer What part of "lost his health insurance" and "Parkinson's disease" do you fail to understand?
2
It saddens me that this is happening but I'm pleased that it is being reported. I am a bankruptcy attorney and I've been shouting a warning for many years that the dual problem of inadequate retirement funding for Baby Boomers and the crushing student loan debt of younger generations is a ticking time bomb that will eventually devastate our economy. This not going to end well and there is going to be a lot of pain for a lot of people. Like climate change, the signs have been there for a long time but our politicians either cannot read them or are guilty of willful ignorance.
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@Robert Michaelson
Average student debt is less than the cost of a new car. Hardly unmanageable.
5
@Kosher Dill Average student loan debt is $37,172. Get out of your ivory tower, Kosher.
The sad fact is that most people can't afford that $37K new car. Simply getting a loan does not mean someone can afford something. The majority of people buy their cars via loans, meaning they put themselves into debt, same with the student loans. That's the very problem at hand and you're sitting there acting as if it's not an issue. And considering a vast number of students are majoring in subjects that will not even earn them a job at McDonalds, not sure how they're going to be paying for anything.
@Duncan
Their poor choices aren’t my problem.
This report is a succinct summary of a growing wave of poverty that will face older Americans, especially single women. It deserves much more media time. Recall how in 1978 401K's were touted as the greatest gift to the middle class since white bread. Workers were told "its your money, you decide" even though it was really pennies left over after food shopping that was really "owned" by the 401K. Plan Administrators then charged hidden fees which decreased total value. Besides, who could save at the same rate as a union pension? Which 401K could provide a guarantee of income in old age? Remember 2008? The assault on pensions comes from only one party, a libertarian, Koch Brothers type party. Right wing media focuses on a few union scofflaws rather than the success that a pension brings. Too many union members, like cops and fireman, vote Republican. Why? Most Republican politicians favor privatization of Social Security and Medicare. Economic statistics, like the GDP, are a joke for the bankrupt 80 year old. Religious groups (like the Catholic Workers Movement) once supported financial security for the elderly and infirm, but now feed elderly men and women from food pantries. Is this social justice? Should we be angry? Remember the lies of those phony religious white men in Congress who will retire with a secure pension. Vote for personal security in old age. Vote to change laws.
271
@et.al.nyc My dad was in the Union, and I remember the loss of income when he went on strike. Nowadays business employs undocument workers and enjoys a windfall of profits. We sold out the American worker. Yes it is big business, yet how many of you take out federal taxes for your nannies and house cleaners?
8
401ks are not perfect, but, it sounds to me that many commenters here are now demonizing a savings vehicle that has been used by millions to supplement their retirement income, because, I'm guessing, many did not use them when available, and made very poor investment decisions if they did. Did you have an employer match in your company's 401k plan? And you didn't take advantage of it? Why not? Free money. And, what happened in 2008 that destroyed your savings? Yes, there was a market downturn, but, since then, the market has more than tripled. Did you sell at absolutely the wrong time out of panic? Or, worse yet, did you borrow that 401k money because it was so easy and the rates were so low? Not smart. And, now, if you're over 55, no second chances, no matter what the tv commercials tell you, that, you can make up for a lifetime of bad financial decisions in a flurry of saving and investing at a late stage. No, you can't, unless you get really really lucky.
If anybody young is reading this, here's my advice. First, don't blame politicians for your personal misfortune. Losers game. Save at least 10% of your income, and do it by automatic deductions. You'll never notice it's gone after a few months. Spend wisely, like, no 50,000 dollar cars leased because they're cool, and learn to cook. Invest in low fee simple index funds. Be patient. Exercise a lot, stop eating junk food, and lay off the binge drinking. And, buy and use a water pic. Implants are expensive.
7
@Mike M "And, buy and use a water pic. Implants are expensive." And buy dental floss! (and USE IT! )
I know alot of older people who gave money and took loans out for their kids for houses and college and are now regretting it.
22
@DC wait, didn't the Koch Brothers force them to take out those loans?
2
Unbelievable. The generation now entering their elderly years lived through an enormous economic expansion and steady increase in property values throughout their working years. Young families are now paying Medicare and social security for this cohort into perpetuity. "The only thing that make sense" as the prof said in this piece, is that large numbers of people are terribly irresponsible.
11
There but for the grace of god go I.
You have no idea what has caused these circumstances for people. May you find more understanding from others should life throw you the same same knocks.
46
'Given the rate of increase, Professor Thorne said, “the only explanation that makes any sense are structural shifts.”'
No where in this statement do I read "large numbers of poeople are terribly irresponsible", as you state.
The "structural shifts" are societal, economical & cultural;the entire article succinctly chronicles how these shifts have all contributed to the increase in
bankruptcy & dcrease in quaility of life for
disabled and senior citizens in 2018.
7
Thank goodness for this article. My parents who are in their early 60s are struggling worse now than I have ever seen. My father's small construction business shuttered after the 2008 housing collapse. Their lush retirement and savings account are diminishing everyday because of mortgage they can no longer afford in a market that doesn't want to buy it. They aren't insured anymore: they can't afford it out-of-pocket, and they don't qualify for anything else for a variety of reasons. I'm grateful to INOVA for extending my mother financial aid after she suffered from a spinal blood clot that required emergency surgery last year. If not...
It's indescribable how drained my parents are. They believe this is their fault, that their situation a product of their moral and financial shortcomings. They suffer quietly out of shame when infact a whole nation is suffering with them.
482
@Nathalie: It is their fault. Should have spent less and saved more.
1
@Karl Hungus Show a little compassion. You might need it in return someday.
@Karl Hungus ... What you seem to not understand about this article is that the social safety nets were put in place both to protect them, and to protect YOU from them. Without such protection the hungry will come knocking on your door, and they aren't going to take your pithy blame as an answer.
Basic personal financial mistakes lead to trouble in later years. Americans are living beyond their means. Simple home finance education should be taught in high schools. Nothing is free in the USA. Eventually it has to be paid for. Obviously our President did not learn this.
31
@DA
This may be true, but getting an illness shouldn't make you homeless. That's an only in America problem, like having 300 million firearms no one really controls. Americans are also living without any political common sense in a money-corrupted Citizens United country.
9
Blaming other for you spending more then you make is just GREAT!
Only you can plan for your financial well being. STOP wanting others to support you.
11
My pension with a union just went into federal trust. Now that I will get maybe half am I allowed to blame someone.
8
They is no greater ability to lift oneself from poverty than acquiring a good efucation.
Not just because you can get a better job that pays more money and thereby protect yourself (a little better) from the financial frailties of old age.
But because you would know how important, and rare, the power of the people to influence their own government and thereby affect their own lives is.
You would know to never believe the lies of the Republican party and would never have jeopardized our nation's future and your personal economic health to con artists like Trump, the Republican party or their wealthy supporters including the Fox news propaganda channel.
The first lesson everyone should learn is this:
If someone gets richer by making you poorer, that's a bad deal.
52
@joe Looks like you need to petition your Congressman to get Medicaid to cover Trump Anxiety Disorder.
2
Pretty easy to understand what’s driving the jump in bankruptcies.
Remember those cartoons about the impatient vulture?
“When are these old workers going to quit/retire and allow my nephew/ niece / somebody with more energy/ somebody who will conspicuously consume to take their place?”
Push out the old folks.
Which is why all the consolidation and “lost the contract” subterfuge with security guard companies. Easy enough job to do; be on time, be courteous, etc. until the client complains that the old guards are depressing the workforce.
Uh, too scary to see the future, eh?
11
Ones financial well-being takes planning. It doesn’t happen just by luck; although that helps. The biggest catastrophe to it is divorce; I’ve seen it many a time. Assets are split, and one person, usually the woman, has to carry the whole load. The other is not saving enough. Always max out if you can. We did; and even though we never made much, we are doing great in retirement.
12
@Adrienne M
Exactly. My best friend is a 58-year-old secretary who never made more than $50,000 a year, mostly much less. No inheritance.
She has a paid-off 1,800 sq ft house on a lake and nearly $1 million in her 401k.
Choices....
8
Americans are consumers and they consumer far too much. No one should be in a house they cannot afford; rent a room. No parents should be co-singing loans. Leaving your spouse when elderly? Think that one financially out. I could go on but people have no one to blame but themselves. And if these people are in such a bad situation where are they children? If they have children those parents should be taking in their parents. And lastly do not blame this on President Trump like everything else.
11
Wait, what? Stay in that unhappy marriage? Move into the flophouse? Maybe you can drift from one child’s home to the next, effectively passing the burden on to them. Is this the Great America we’re seeking to restore? Can’t wait to see the reinvigoration of poor houses, and I’m pretty sure someone will make money off them
16
@JSBNoWI
There’s nothing wrong with multi-generation households. It’s how my 20th century ancestors got ahead, and how many prosperous immigrants do today.
1
Property taxes are bankrupting many seniors. Here in New Jersey, it’s not uncommon to pay $10,000 per year. When we bought our houses, taxes were only $2,000, but they go up exponentially every year. You may have paid off your house, but the government doesn’t care; it just wants your money or your house.
68
@Rick So sell your home, make that money and move. Here I pay about 1200 per year and they don't go up every year, if they did those raising them would be gone.
9
@vulcanalex: The only way anything in NJ would get better is if during the Trenton kleptocracy's annual train trip to D.C., the train were to derail and go up in a fireball. Even then, the chance of change would be slim.
2
@Karl Hungus
New Jersey is simply the canary in the coal mine. No one can retire in New Jersey. I don't understand how it will survive.
Yes, unfettered capitalism becomes 'crony capitalism' which is worse than either communism or pure socialism. So, the 1% gain at our expense and stark inequality has become more obvious each day.
Many northern EU countries balance capitalism and socialism to the benefit of all citizens. Entrepreneurs are encouraged as health care is provided for them and their families so the very real fear of failure is mitigated by this fact.
The US is in the hands of brigands, thieves, and a barely literate Trump cult.
309
This is tragic and has been brewing for a long time. The elderly are this country’s newly impoverished.
Defined pension plans are gone, social security has not kept pace with inflation and medical costs are stratospheric.
The blame goes around since Regan. That includes Obama. No one wanted to face this problem.
The Europeans and Japanese take care of their elderly. We throw them away.
83
I am a senior and a confirmed Realist after extensive research of the so called Democratic party, whats left of it, the GOP, Socialism, Libertarian, a neo conservatism , I dropped any political affiliation. Don't blame the GOP the Democrats have marketed The Social Democratic Welfare State Model for years and it is obvious they can't make it work. Our new underclass is here to stay as they say. As is poverty. The final blow was so called Globalization to foster affordable consumer goods it has had devastating side effects, could be compared to taking Medicine.
5
@Dan Greenhouse: fan: Clinton & Obama’s made great strides in making a more social Democrat model work, only to be undermined by republicans. RhNk then 4 our current mess.
7
This perfect storm has been building for years. The Perfect Storm? Or, the Perfect Game. Low interest rates are wonderful but . . . the bank rate on deposits is now negligible while it has encouraged people, companies, banks and governments to spend now and pay later. Unfortunately, later never comes. “The Wealthy Barber” is no more! The banks, corporations and the one percent “game the system” by running up huge debts and deficits while, at the same time, their legal teams prepare for the eventual bankruptcies to wipe out the payment obligations. Credit card companies love the game: people overextending their credit – it gives them an excuse to justify higher fees, penalties and premiums while lowering services. The “make America great” political game: promise lower taxes and increased benefits but then lower expenditures on education, health care, corporate control and infrastructure while shifting the system to “for-profit” schools, health care, medicine and toll-roads. It seems that any benefit of having a government “for the people, by the people” has been lost to greed and profit. And so, those that can, DO (“game” the system), and those that can’t, PAY. A wealthy person can go bankrupt six times and keep the tax credit(s) from the failed investment(s) to write down taxes on future income while only the duped investors suffer any loss. Moral corruption and financial corruption seem epidemic in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”.
30
By the time my dad admitted the straits my parents were in, they were too broke to go bankrupt--they did not have the money for the court costs and lawyer. If I had not been able to pay those for them, they would have lost their home.
19
Why wouldn't the carpenter have opted out of his union heath insurance and taken medicare with a stout co-plan?
18
@M. The union plan was probably a better deal financially. Contrary to popular opinion, especially in the Times comments, Medicare is neither free nor cheap.
4
It sure would be nice to hear about all the Seniors who are doing OK, who are managing Life post-working/after age 65 just fine.
And I don't think it's all about medical issues as many commenters -- especially non-Americans' comments -- have indicated. Like the filing for bankruptcy, financial/life-style difficulties usually stem from a multitude of issues/concerns/happenings. It is unfortunate that these authors chose to zero in on primarily-Medicare issues in their graphs.
14
I notice one of the themes in this article is older people with mortgages. My grandfather was an illiterate immigrant from Poland. He immigrated here in 1909 and had a house paid for by 1929, which is a good thing because he didn't work during the Depression. A great grandfather, skilled laborer, had his house paid for by the age of 43 before he died unexpectedly, which I am sure was beneficial for his widow and 8 children. I'm not sure about the decision-making that results in a person not yet having a paid-for house at the age of 70.
18
@Jeff L....and that house probably cost $12-1500 in '09!
6
@Jeff L
Exactly, Jeff L. I’m 55 and my house has been paid off for years.
Of course, it’s a 1,000 sq ft bungalow, not the large Victorian I could’ve qualified for. I chose the modest home and mortgage and the choice has paid off; houses in my neighborhood sell like hot cakes for triple what I paid.
Wonder how many of these complainers maxed out on mortgages, cars and other voluntary lifestyle choices....
8
@Jeff L I can think of a few. For example, predatory lending companies that heavily market "reverse mortgages" to seniors as a solution to financial problems. Others take out home equity loans or new mortgages to help pay for children's college or major medical expenses. Or maybe just that it took until almost age 50 to pay off hte student loans.
5
No surprises here If you are a member of the 99% of normal-wealth Americans you already know this from taking care of your own parents, or helping tbem move into your converted garage.
The real mystery to me is why so many of this demographic are Trump supporters. They go to rallies to passionately cheer their votes against their own self interests.
Trump's fiscal policies are rapidly accelerating our nation's return to medieval economics where older, non-productive people are systematically separated from their meager wealth and thrown out into the street.
Our nation's founders gave the people the power of self government. Yes they did it because they needed the power of the mob to safeguard their wealth against the tyranny of the crown. Yet the mob now, led by the Fox news propaganda channel, and with an assist from our national enemy Putin, are marching all of us into financial oblivion.
139
@joe The idea that 99% are like this is one reason I don't even believe people like this. I have a good retirement, no pension, and am not a 1%er. I have lived within my means my entire life, saved a lot and was lucky.
3
@joe
Uneducated people rule their lives by emotions, not reason. Emotionally, Trump appeals and delivers. Logically, they are clueless.
5
It is very sad and not lost on the readers or commenters here that too many people keep voting for the sort of politician who makes this situation worse. With the likes of Paul Ryan claiming that Social Security is a form of welfare , why do people keep listening to them ?
439
@Thomas
Good point but reality is, don't look to politicians to solve anything. Our system is no longer structured to look out for the masses. Politicians are in no position to make good on their campaign promises.
4
@Thomas Social Security is worse than that- it is a Ponzi scheme. It is wealth built over a persons lifetime that they may never receive, can’t use before they file, can’t transfer to their children, and have no idea what that wealth actually is. You can build it up over a lifetime, and if you die one day before receiving it, it goes to strangers. I’m not sure that’s a good deal.
4
@Adrienne M
Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. It's part of the social contract that this country used to believe in. Unfortunately we are now led by acolytes of Ayn Rand who believe in selfishness, that every needy person is a loser who brought their problems upon themselves.
Ironically I’m sure many of these folks are Republicans.
It’s not a pretty sight returning to feudal times, is it?
Thanks Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell et al. Don’t know how you sleep at night.
379
Easily. They have lots of money, great health care, and no ethics. Their priorities have and will always be wealth care and wealth fare at the expense of the middle care & poor, even if some of them voted them into office. They are beholden to those who line their pockets with green.
37
@Dede wilder Yeah; it was so much better under bank account- busting Obamacare premiums and 1.5% GDP.
2
@Dede wilder The next number to rise is the number of grey suicide
The American Indian tribes understood that respecting the wisdom, accomplishments and efforts of their elders is what got them to where they were and how they were able to survive against the odds until the Europeans arrived and abused everything they held sacred. That the Republican led government allows the small financial safety net to be reduced yet again for immediate financial gain by those already wealthy is a disgrace. Private health insurance is a business to these people with the specific mandate to make money and their interest is just that, not a concern for people's health and medical conditions. When I visit my doctor the first question I'm asked is about my insurance, not my health.
Americans who keep voting for Republicans, especially those not independently wealthy have been sold a bill of goods in almost every area these dismal policies have an impact. They will suffer and die while their tax dollars pay for golden healthcare packages afforded to the very congressional leaders who took theirs away. Their children will work for crumbs and they'll have the Republican Party to thank for it. And the thought that Republicans use them for political ends while taking away the American dream will never occur to them.
Republican policy will be the death of America.
189
@Robert Westwind
Sorry. Look at the Demographics and utter wealth pockets, who voted for Hillary.There all Democrats.
2
@Dan Green
So Democrats rich or poor voted for their candidate. I don't really consider that a demographic inconsistency. And why bring up Hillary? She doesn't support policies that Republicans embrace that will impact the elderly and infirm as it applies to healthcare.
One of the major contributing factors is that the true inflation rate is nearer 10% for necessary goods and services, which is ignored by the SSA, Medicare, etc. at the expense of those who need it just to survive.
This needs to be on the front page forever and dealt with in Congress immediately
Google " true inflation rate", many other links worth reading
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/heres-the-real-inflation-p...
33
@Mike
Hi Mike:
I am a very fortune senior who after many years of planning and saving I am enjoying a comfortable financial retirement. The circumstance few ever consider is the issue of inflation for seniors it is very real. No matter what the Government tells us of inflation it doesn't apply to seniors. For me absolutely crippling real estate taxes are apparent in many states . Social security giveth and taketh away as they say with increases in Medicare A and B. Point being in my planning I never included Social security that I always called beer money.
11
Bankruptcy: If you are still paying off a mortgage, you shouldn't be retiring.
Even if you have a pension or 401. You are carrying serious risk to be homeless. And your primary asset will be lost to you.
Pay off your house. Or sell it and thereby pay off your mortgage and then rent reasonably.
What I am seeing around me are adult children coming back with their kids to live with their parents. THEN things are really complicated. Who is on the deed? Who is paying the mortgage? Not a good scenario for the older person at all.
12
@K Henderson
Obviously you don’t get it. Many are losing their jobs before they can choose or qualify for retirement. The workplace does this to avoid paying retirement benefits. Then many are unemployed or underemployed depleting their savings. Also, mortgage payments don’t increase and rent rates are higher most of the time. Wish this doesn’t happen to you.
68
@K Henderson It all depends. If you have a low interest mortgage, you can still make more by keeping your capital invested. Your mortgage might be a lot cheaper than a comparable rent.
23
Art, geez no. You **lose your house if you cannot pay your mortgage.** If you are unemployed then you are definitely in a risk scenario with your mortgage. Sad to see this get the upvotes when the logic is so off. Get from out of your mortgage Art.
During the 2016 election, neoliberals clutched at their pearls and repeatedly asked how we could possibly pay for the agenda that Bernie Sanders advocated. These same people never questioned the trillions we spend on brutal and unnecessary wars and tax cuts for the wealthy.
That agenda is looking pretty reasonable to our citizens now, isn't it?
We simply forgot that Congress has the power of the purse strings. They will pay for what they determine benefits them and not what benefits our citizens.
Vote in the November elections and advocate a progressive agenda. For the survivial of our country.
402
@TM To be fair, I was clutching imitation pearls, because I can't afford real ones. And the clutching was due my awareness that his agenda would sink in the hands of the current congress, not the agenda itself.
2
@TM. ...Right ...Like Hillary Clinton who objected to raising the minimum wages, saying oh no that is too much too fast...and of course no one put a gun to her head in the Senate forcing her to vote to invade innocent Iraq...those Neo Liberals aka Clinton Democrats? How did that work out hmmm? Dragged us all into this hot mess while ignoring clear messages from the public.
Republicans supported by the wealthy have brought this epidemic upon our country. The wealthy use their money to influence government to make them even wealthier, with no limits. In so doing they harm real people.
Any member of the top 1% who was supported the Republican party needs to have all their wealth taken away from them before they can hurt any more people.
Let them survive without yachts or servants on Medicaid and food stamps, and prohibit them from the relief of bankruptcy courts which ironically, many, including Trump have used to accumulate their wealth in the first place.
24
The statistics here are 5 years old. Considering the trend in pharmaceutical pricing we can assume that the percentages of total income has increased considerably. This is horrifying.
All my working life as an independent business I regretted not having the pensions many of my friends enjoyed. Now that many pension funds have been cut or bankrupted, the fact that I had to figure out my own future leaves me hyperventilating. There but for the grace of God. (really just luck).
What will the country do when this situation worsens, which it surely will?
24
NYT - As a comparison, I’d be very curious to see a break down of some of the older members of Congress wealth / medical coverage benefits. Maybe for McConnell, Grassley, Schumer, etc...
Many baby boomers are now finding themselves “downsized” in their mid 50s. A good way for companies to save. And with the new arbitration laws, it is very hard for employees to fight back against this discrimination. Now is the time to vote out the members of Congress who support these cuts / regulations.
118
@JCAZ Schumer is worth $950,000. Grassley is worth $3,180,000. McConnell has $26,678,035. Ryan has $6,000,000
4
Age discrimination in hiring is the next #MeToo movement. #AGEISM #AgedOut #StillHere.
1
This is a country that reject universal healthcare. The healthcare expense will bankrupt more and more elderly people. Small government for education and healthcare and see where we are now.
38
Elections have consequences, and some of them take decades to show up. A boomer myself, I feel compelled to note that my generation are the people who- in their heyday- sent Ronald Reagan to Washington, 48-2 states in 1980, and 49-1 in 1984.
Not all of us- but most of us- bought into the idea that "business" can always do a more efficient job than government. We learned to disdain unions and civil servants, and recoil from anything that smacked of a 'government handout.'
We traded collective bargaining, workers' rights and financial regulation for free markets, right to work, the Laffer Curve, and trickle-down. We pocketed tax cuts and voted for the politicians who promised more: even as the infrastructure decayed, the costs of education and healthcare soared, and everything that could be 'privatized,' was.
Not everyone voted for this 'every man/woman for themselves' world, but we all get to grow old in it.
749
Well said!
Well said! Thank you. Myself I voted and campaigned for Jimmy Carter. An outstanding man then as now!
1
@ThatJulieMiller
Excellent comment!
Not quite everything was privatized...
Risk was socialized, as in, failing private corporations were bailed out by the taxpayer.
3
This is the Social Darwinist phase of the Great American Experiment: a process of natural selection where the 1% or, let's be generous, the 3% survive and the other 97% lose their jobs - or work two minimum-wage jobs - work for employers who offer no, or substandard health insurance, cannot make a reasonable return on their investments if they managed to save any money at all(rates have been artificially suppressed for ten years - a five-year CD returns only 3% and is fully taxable).
Eventually, with increasing age, stress, poor healthcare, demands from family - their kids and their parents are also not doing well - inadequate or no retirement savings and token returns on investment, minimum wage jobs, or no jobs, they get sick, declare bankruptcy, wreck their credit, become useless, and return to their source (ashes to ashes).
The oligarchy is doing fine. Their biggest problem is avoiding taxes on their skyrocketing income and circumventing regulations that allow them to offshore their assets and pay no taxes at all. Now they're intimidating the Fed to keep interest rates low so they can continue to borrow free money, buy stock on the margin, live in mansions in East Hampton, buy $18,000 Karaoke machines, and wear $2000 ostrich jackets while they disparage the middle class as slackers complaining about the collapsing safety net (that the middle class paid for). Social Security is bankrupt: a " Ponzi scheme."
Buenas noches...
109
@Midnight Scribe
I am not buying what you are selling. I have a bachelors degree + 1 year post graduate internship and work as a Medical Laboratory Scientist. With some overtime I made 68,000 last year before taxes. I am basically as middle-middle class as you can get.
I have zero debt except for a 15 year mortgage thats half way paid off. And I manage to save 15% + 6% company match in my 403b.
I am on course to be a millionaire by the time I am in my early 50's.
The middle class is not dead, those of us who are responsible, hard working, and know how to manage money are doing very well.
If you don't want a 3% return, invest in a diversified portfolio of low cost index mutual funds. I made 22% return last year and am up 4% this year in what has been a rough year.
19
HousingFear:
Your situation and apparent hard work leading to your current success does not sound typical. You shared information, but to get a complete picture that your method works, other data is needed:
Your college costs paid by?
The down payment for your place?
It appears that you are single with no dependents - is that the case?
Do you share a portion of your success with the society that nurtured you?
The wages you earn nearly equals the combined incomes of two workers in a "middle class" family getting started who rent as they try to save up for a house down payment while paying off college debt...
21
Ahhh yes: In your 40s you will be diagnosed with brain cancer, treatable yes but it will eat up your 'million' since the health care costs will be exorbitant and you will not have income during treatmeant. After that you will not be eligible for health care because you have a pre-existing condition. Work will be much harder to find with the disability from your brain surgery. Alternatively imagine a market crash wiping out your million.
Life is not a straight line and all responsibility will not help when you live in a cut-throat society without a social safety net. Societal solidarity and emphaty goes a long way.
39
This is a great article. Thank you for publishing it. As a caregiver I see this desperation every day. The hollowing out of American employment is a major or the factor. In the past people worked until retirement and had a pension. They might have been a little crotchety and forgetful during their last years but because of their years of service they were kept on. Now when you have a few grey hairs you are out. And try as a skilled carpenter with grey hair to get a job that would pay a mortgage. Why would they hire you when they can get a Mexican for 8 dollars an hour. The Mexican is happy because he earns 2 dollars an hour in Mexico even working in a US car factory. When he works here he has his family expenses and schooling for his kids covered by the government.(I realize we need more workers to fund social security since raising the contribution limit is a political third rail.) I realize that US corporations and industry need to be world wide competitive and profitable and that corporate financiers are now transnational but can't they introduce the new world order with a little compassion? Both political parties are at fault but they get pensions and can trade in the stock market on their insider knowledge so they are all very rich.
21
Although we have tried to save and are realistic about the changes we will have to make in our expectations when we retire, my husband and I are aware of how financially precarious we will be. We will depend mainly on Social Security with a bit of supplement we have managed to gather. But we will have lots of excellent credit and we plan on dying in debt. If we cannot afford to pay credit card bills or medical bills, oh well.
8
@Nina just make sure your kids know that they will not be responsible for your cc debt. alot of companies will call the family members to try to collect and they are not legally responsible to pay.
3
@Nina
Two people working for a lifetime and you still are precarious? Sorry but that’s on you. I’m financially set and never had the luxury of a two-income household.
How lacking in integrity to plan on stiffing your creditors, too.
8
Yes. We learned how to manage the system when my mother-in law was no longer able to financially survive.
3
I am wondering about a couple of things in regarding Mr. Sedita's situation:
1. He is now 74 but suffered an injury in 1991 which resulted in his collecting disability. That means he has been on disability for 27 years and was only 47 years old when he stopped working. Was there no employment he was capable of handling? Retail, service, driving?
2. This story says he does not have health insurance. Why is he not receiving Medicare?
40
This trend is going on for past 15 years. As a practicing physician in relatively affluent Connecticut I see the financial decline in my elderly patient population on daily basis. The escalating medical cost, higher coast of energy and consumer needs combining with shrinking income and republican tax reforms have affected the elderly population profoundly. Its not unusual to see my elderly patient population trying to neglect their daily needs and compromise their health and general well being. Its daily routine for me to see geriatric patients not eating adequate healthy calories and not taking the full doses of required medications, never mind meeting their other daily needs or thinking beyond daily survival. Sad.
111
@HCJ. More than sad. Reprehensible.
3
I am living quite nicely in Viet Nam on my social security. Friendly people, interesting food and enough volunteering opportunities to stay busy. There are lots of other "Viet Nams" scattered around to world, most of them cheap, interesting and with vibrant ex-pat communities.
76
@jim allen
I'm with you Jim. I burned out professionally at age 58 and decamped to Phuket, Thailand where I lived modestly on $600 a month until I could tap into social security at age 62. Also, dental care here is 20$ for a check-up/cleaning and 30$ for a filling. Private health insurance is very affordable through AIA. Plus, there are the tropical sunsets and million-dollar beaches, at no charge.
14
@jim allen
So, what you're saying Jim is that older Americans have to immigrate to another country to have a decent standard of living and health care. Considered how we treat immigrants here, what if they don't want us? Or, conversely, we could reinstate a fairer tax distribution and the wealthy and corrupt could help us pay for pensions and universal health care instead of gutting the country for more yachts. Glad you're still getting social security, but if Mitch and Ryan have their way, they'll take that money you contributed all your working life and give it to some rich donor. Don't think the Vietnamese will have any use for you then.
10
@jim allen
Same deal here in Anatolia. Nice two room house and food is cheap. Lots of vacant homes since the Turks want to live in Germany where the benefits are great for migrants.
1
It's been over 100 years since William Allen White wrote "What's the Matter with Kansas". As noted in a previous comment most of us can be convinced to vote against our own self-interest at times. But the events of the last couple of years are a sad reminder of how a huge portion of the population can be taken in by a charlatan leader and lobbyists in the guise of legislators.
Bulwer-Lytton's wrote "the pen is mightier than the sword" but the sentence starts with "Under the rule of men entirely great..." We're a little short of great men to lead us but we still have some with great pens to enlighten us. To all of those devoted to rational thought and objective analysis: keep the ink flowing freely.
21
Perhaps this calls for more creativity on the local level. There are some communal living situations happening, where like minded people live in settings where they have some private space as well as communal space, eat together , help each other, etc. There are also live-in helpers who can be far less costly than assisted living situations. Leadership locally to organize creative living situations for elderly...as well as for homeless folks..seems critical at this time.
10
Home care for the elderly is ideal but it is far more expensive that institutional care because there is very little third party coverage. 24/7 home care is out of the question for anyone but the very wealthy.
10
@Jane
Excellent suggestion. These homes could be based near schools and colleges in order to create vibrant, symbiotic communities.
1
@Mary Communities that few could afford to live in.
Did anyone else catch that the law professor was named Robert Lawless? You can't make this stuff up!
4
Can you imagine? Just think about it a second. George W Bush wanted to privatize Social Security. Before the recession hit. And, before that, 401k contributions were no longer deductible if you were "covered" by a pension. And before that you lost your defined benefit pension because corporations "couldn't afford to pay that anymore". So this is what all that has accomplished. Inability to retire. Rapidly increasing bankruptcy rates. And , of course, the Republican answer to that is to.....make you have to work longer and get less in benefits. Explain to me how the rising tide they love to show off is lifting any other boats? It is in fact sinking the smaller boats. If this concerns you, lets take it to the next step....the next generation of workers who are earning less than their parents and are NOT saving a dime for retirement. All the young people I have worked with do not add one penny to their defined contribution pensions. You think we have a health care crisis in America. Wait a few years and that will look like small potatoes in comparison. And the mantra from the Republicans is getting the government out of your life. And letting the private sector take care of the problem. Welcome to the new retirement. Poor and sick after decades of working. I have news for Republicans. You are helping to create the conditions that will usher in the next FDR. Then the wheel will have come full circle. And you will have even more to complain about.
243
@Walking Man
The solution is abolish ICE and replace the population with harder working people who are satisfied with a lower standard of living. You have to realize American industry has to be world competitive as finance and investment is now transnational. Money knows no borders so population should know no borders.
3
And Obama was willing to put social security cuts on the table. The Republicans wouldn’t negotiate with him....thank god.
4
@JJ "And Obama was willing to put social security cuts on the table." When was this? I believe you have faulty memory.
A society not able to provide a decent life for all of its citizens does not deserve to be called civilized.Its the law of the jungle,only the strongest survive.
146
The only answer is universal healthcare.
120
The retail job boom did not start in earnest till the early 70's, once the people who worked low wage/ low benefits start retiring in huge numbers, it will get exponentially ugly.
24
@AMG Perhaps you are right BUT people who worked at low paying jobs all of their lives without making an effort to move up economically need to take some moral responsibility for their own economic situation.
For readers (and voters) who decry paying for the benefits and pensions of public employees forget, the logic behind the collective bargaining agreements reached in the 1960s and early 1970s was "if the private sector provides it's employees with pensions, health benefits, life insurance, and time off for training, why shouldn't public sector employees have the same benefit package?"
There was a time when businesses provided ALL their employees with defined benefit pensions, provided health benefits and life insurance to ALL their employees, and made certain that ALL their employees, from those entering the workforce to those on the brink of retirement, received timely training ... but that was before the notion of shareholder primacy took hold in the 1970s.
These bankruptcies are the consequence of adopting the idea that the bottom line that rewards shareholders is more important than the well-being of employees... and as this article illustrates it impacts employees at all levels of our society, except, maybe, those who chose to enter public service and those who are major shareholders.
186
@WFGersen
I think you are misreading what happened.
Once globalization started making inroads into areas of US manufacturing and related industry, there was no way the US private sector benefits packages would be sustainable if product costs were to be competitive with, say, China. So those companies had to cut benefits and lay off older workers. Or go bankrupt.
It really had nothing to do with US government benefits for its citizens.
6
@WFGersen Private medical insurance is revenue driven. Private medical insurance, when provided by employers, was/is relatively hidden as an expense or wage. Private medical insurance costs are greatly inflated by administrative expenses.
No other country has this medical care distribution model. It is big business to make money feeding on the diseased, dying, and suffering citizens. It starts with maternity 'care' and ends with nursing home 'care'. Pay attention, people.
Another caveat to the mix: opiate meds were designed and pushed by Purdue to prescribers & distributors. China now manufactures most meds and vaccines consumed in the U.S. And this is only the tip of the medical care mess of moving parts in which we live.
3
@WFGersen ... but, hey, casual Fridays.
In a modern social democracy, health care and education are not billed to the individual. If that were the case in America, this article would never have been written.
938
@Tim Clair In a modern civilized society health care and education are not billed to the individual, regardless of government form.
2
@Tim Clair
Luckily we are a constitutional republic and not a social democracy. Let freedom ring.
3
@Tim Clair
We, in Massachusetts, still have RomneyCare, and that is just enough of a "benefit" to stabilize pricing and make most health expenses predictable and, mostly but not all, affordable.
3
I appreciate the research and alarm sent out. Shame on the economists who still insist that there is no inflation. They have gaslighted the population into believing that the economy is wonderful (for whom?), and that with “no inflation” one should be able to make it, and if not, it is a personal failure. How can they be no inflation if an education has gone from a few thousand a year to tens of thousands? Or a single apple or green pepper or lemon costs what a whole bag did just 10 years ago? Or, a bottle of medicine go from $10 to $300? And sneakily, Congress raised the retirement age and took funds we’d paid into social security and medicare ... and there is governor of Maine who would rather die than give the hardworking people of his state Medicaid. Politicians and companies counted on Americans feeling that they ought to shoulder all their own burdens individually, but we were never meant to do it all alone. I’ll bet there is a direct relationship between the figures in this study and to union dissolution, as well.
1187
I know: the USA govt's "inflation index" is not remotely accurate. Borders on wilful misinformation. I stopped paying attention to any news items about "inflation is under control" once I looked at how it is actually calculated.
5
@SB where do you get the idea that economists say there is no inflation? Certainly no economists I know. In fact, they have been attempting to blow the whistle for years that health care is taking such a huge and ever growing chunk of GDP that it is in danger of stalling or breaking the economy.
Certain things are cheaper now in real dollars than they were 20 years ago, but two major things have been growing MUCH faster then inflation - health care and higher education. From the article, it sounds like those two things account for many of the bankruptcies.
7
$2.50 for a can of soup? There is inflation. I think that there is nowhere to complain to when government statistics lie. For instance our current "low" in unemployment still does not take into account all the people who lost jobs or slipped to lower jobs after 2009. They were simply dropped from the accounting. While campaigning Trump insisted all the unemployment stats were lies...then he took office. Now he supports this and many other lies.
2
Canadians and Brits have already posted here as to the benefits of universal health care. If America wants to change, citizens need to vote, and vote for those Democrats who are now espousing universal health care.
I just spent a month in the USA and visited a lot of people, from the working middle class to the wealthy. The working middle class we met were terrified of one slip-up (e.g., losing their health or job) that could lead to a domino effect of losing everything. That's no way to live.
Americans need to embrace the ideals of both Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, one a Republican and one a Democrat. Give people a chance to live a fear-free live. That's not too much to ask, is it?
1848
But it's fear--fear of immigrants, fear of dark-skinned people, fear of my gay neighbor, fear of anyone not like me--that is the foundation of Trump's (and now the entire GOP's) support. I don't think you'll see much of a Call to Arms from Republicans in this country so long as fear-based dog whistles (or bullhorns, now) keep getting them elected. Sad!
5
@Oliver
I hope you are aware that the political right in the US has spent every day since the election of FDR, vowing to undo everything he stood for. They are now making rapid progress with the help of the propaganda machine they have created to discredit government in general.
5
@Oliver, I agree with you. But what you're arguing for is redistribution of income and resources. For a lot of anti-tax wealthy and pro-business people (including big money donors to both parties, a bigger factor in the U.S. politics than in other Western democracies), and for a lot of people who vote on the basis of racial and/ or "cultural" fears and prejudices (as opposed to their actual economic interests), what you're advocating is, in fact, too much to ask. Hopefully, this will change.
6
I am grateful for the universal coverage in Canada. People critcize and complain about our wait times & I have found myself in some of those queues myself. No we don't necessarily get everything we ask for right away, but there is no question we will receive treatment. The cases mentioned here are heart-breaking & for me, unimaginable. Health & education are the foundation of a functional society in this century & the USA is well on the way to sinking into a nightmarish dystopia on both counts. What happened to you guys?
2044
What happened to us? The American voter keeps falling for the Republican hogwash of lower taxes not realizing that it means no more safety net.
671
@ursamaj
Here in the US I had to schedule a physician appointment (not urgent) months in advance. Then he cancelled, so it started all over again. Twice.
I spent an hour on the phone (mostly hideous hold music and promos) to make sure I got a proper referral.
So much for no wait times in the US healthcare system.
165
@ursamaj Republican regimes in between Democrats. 8 years of clinton destroyed by 8 years of bush. 8 years of obama recaptured the greatness lost by Bush. Now in the Trumpian dystopia we live in -- all bets are off. We are finished. It's shameful that voters gave us this useless twit. It will take decades to undo his unique form of dumbing down 'Murica. But we're letting him do it. No one -- and I do mean -- NO ONE is stopping hjim. Sad days are just going to get worse.
9
too late?
it is all about intrinsic market ideas value human beings at risks /costs : Superfluous/Usefull- Rating .
2
Depending on the state of the country in a few years, my retirement and debt discharge plan is suicide.
No social security, (someone has to pay to make the rich richer, and it's us) no affordable housing, no affordable health care...bleak is the only word that comes to mind.
The GOP is counting on people like me. They can't actually come out and kill us, but the've sent every message they can that older Americans are a drain on their quest for personal wealth and need to be expended.
303
Geriatric suicide is very under-reported. If someone intentionally overdoses on Rx meds, the coroner will say it was accidental unless there was a note from the deceased. Lots of tragic untold stories there.
14
@Susan I'm almost seventy, and while I have some considerably savings (chose to do that rather than buy a house), I've had to retire from most of the work I did for years because it wrecked my neck and shoulder (I'm a muralist). Your plan is also mine. When my money runs out, I'll save enough to get the drugs or whatever it takes to end my life myself.
The "ruling class" used to start wars that got enormous numbers of us killed off. Now they pit us against each other in other ways, and their strategy is working. Lots of my peers also hint at suicide as a solution.
5
@Susan
I hope you're being hyperbolic; I fear you are not.
One wonders how many of these elderly people who have arrived in desperate financial trouble would have been Trump supporters earlier in life. Would have said that everyone needs to fend for themselves. That a healthy economy would trickle down to them. I suspect many would have. Such words and thoughts of self sufficiency sooth the ego and shaming others who cannot make it is a powerful internal force. It is a different tune now isn't it?
73
One wonders how many of these people voted for Trump? I would guess most of them did.
10
FDR said social insurance (Social Security) was part of a 3 legged stool with savings and pensions.
Business in general hated their obligations under the New Deal. Since the 1970's pensions have vanished, households required two breadwinners (which makes the loss of a spouse devastating) and savings have dropped precipitously not unsurprisingly.
Support for education of children has dropped. Elites have become ladder-kickers, more interested in making money off loans than investing in the future of their country by making higher education affordable.
Part of the problem is millions of voters who have been brainwashed into seeing government as intrusuve and have been enthusistically voting for their own demise. Yes, the ACA was not great, but it was a start down the road to universal healthcare. Millions, drunk on Trump, and Fox's mental junk food will follow he and his policy right to their own doom.
Part of this article only hints at that kids are often doing worse financially than their parents. They are also a transfer of wealth generationally in the wrong direction. Besides their childrens' debt, many grandparents still support an extended family or grandkids. This study was limited to bankruptcy. A more comprehensive study on elderly who may be at risk would open more eyes.
The revolt of the haves against the middle class continues to go well for elites. Donor-driven policy has inevitable effects on who bears risk: society or individuals.
We should be ashamed.
481
My baby boomer generation drank, smoked and drugged their way to retirement, then driven to near bankruptcy, by subsidizing the drinking, smoking, drugging, and rehab of their own children, who grew up watching and emulating their parents behavior. These, now 40 year old kids, have no savings, more than half of them live at home with their almost bankrupt parents, and continue their own slide into bankruptcy, and welfare. You might think America was Appalachia.
24
@Milque It's clear than sin caused this and not the practices of the pharmaceutical and insurance corporations that are forcing the rest of us to keep old people from starving to death. The enlightenment is greatly appreciated.
9
@Milque Toast does this description apply to you and your friends?...it doesn't apply to any Boomers I know...
10
@Milque Toast Speak for yourself, MT. This description of excess does apply to any of the Boomers I know. My cheapskate Boomer peers nagged me into becoming a compulsive saver who, since 2008, has earned virtually no interest in my nest egg and is willing to debate anyone who says inflation is not a problem.
9
Despite articles like this, the Republican Party will increase the number of seats they hold in the Senate and House this November. And Trump will likely be reelected in 2020. The American people are the only people on Earth who consistently vote against their best interests. I hope the rest of the world, in areas like climate science and economic/social policy, start ignoring the USA and treat it like a banana republic.
184
@ohio I don't disagree with you, but I want to suggest a little nuance to your statement. It is white Americans who consistently vote against their best interests. Why? Because so many have a kind of Pavlovian response to the dog whistles that the GOP have relied on since Nixon. As long as so many white Americans believe that we live in a nation of "us-vs-them," then they will continue to vote against their best interests, and we as a nation will continue to suffer indignities like those highlighted in this article.
16
@ohio The problem is that we share so many of our bananas with the rest of the world in the form of foreign aid, military aid and humanitarian aid that these other nations simply can't afford to shun us.
1
"Driving the surge, the study suggests, is a three-decade shift of financial risk from government and employers to individuals, who are bearing an ever-greater responsibility for their own financial well-being as the social safety net shrinks.
The transfer has come in the form of, among other things, longer waits for full Social Security benefits, the replacement of employer-provided pensions with 401(k) savings plans and more out-of-pocket spending on health care. Declining incomes, whether in retirement or leading up to it, compound the challenge."
During the Obama years, when these kinds of things were happening to working class folks, the president and Democrats did not make loud and clear "hay" about the Republicans who refused to reverse what was happening. Of course, many of these people who were bankrupted actually believed the subtle Republican storyline that a black president was anti-white. Trump hasn't changed a thing. In the 2018 and the 2020 elections, the platform of Democrats has to be clear about preserving the livelihoods of all people, especially like these. Restore full government supports for the working class!
84
This is a slow motion tragedy that will soon turn exponential. We are at the tail end of the effects of degenerate capitalism. The beast is getting ready to swallow its own stomach.
466
couldn't have said it better!
1
This is the tip of the iceberg. I know there are many like me are living on cash flow, and have already started making choices that are not right.
I compromise on dental health and what I perceive as unnecessary medical treatments and doctors visits because I don't have the money for my share of costs.
We will work hard until we can't any longer - I am frightened beyond belief to think of what comes after that....
Thank you for this article, it is simply helpful to see the issue acknowledged publicly - our government certainly doesn't recognize it. Thos in government are wealthy and can not relate to people with little money. And corporate greed and the need to be reelected seems to be all that is on their minds.
It's a sorry state...and I'm very nervous.
692
@Michael S. Let's hold on a second. Those who lead government, legislate or decide are wealthy in government. Certainly not the rank and file. Please keep that in mind. The rest of us who are left are better than many, but certainly not rich. And we are perennial GOP targets, not only because we work for the government. have benefits and support an endeavor donors hate, but also because we contribute (until banned?) the Democrats.
The rank and file get what is happening to this country. We see it every day. Please don't confuse us with DeVos, Carson and Mnuchin. We believe in the social contract and hate been undermined, understaffed and often reviled for what leadership is responsible for. My only advice is stop electing the bad guys.
7
@Michael S.
Good luck, sounds like you're in a tough place. Maybe we can get better healthcare in place in time to help you.
Dental and eye care should absolutely be part of overall healthcare.
4
@Tom Thanks Tom, I understand in my frustration I've generalized. I did not make clear that in terms of leaders, I really meant our current government which is basically controlled by the GOP. I should be more articulate.
Live in splendor, die in debt.
While rising health insurance costs and the end of traditional pensions plans are surely a factor, I do wonder how much of this is a generational materialism behavior.
Living on a credit early in your career, while your earning potential is increasing isn't as bad as living on credit when your income is in decline. If your home isn't paid off by the time you retire, expenses exceeding income is as predictable as the tide.
31
@Tom Stoltz: Wow. Blame it on the victim. Credit is about the only option available to purchase big-ticket items--refrigerator, car, home (just one move makes it impossible to pay off a house with a 30-year mortgage before reaching retirement age), medical procedures, education--even if one is making $20/hour ($40,000/year with average low-end new car price being $25,000). And remember this: today's elderly entered the work force at a time when interest rates were between a usurious 18 percent and a highway-robbery 21 percent.
I don't think the victims are to blame.
36
@Chip Steiner
No its not the only option. You save up and you pay cash, you buy it used or you don't buy it at all.
If you can't afford a 15 year mortgage payment then you are buying to much house and you should keep renting.
Thirdly, don't buy a new car if you are broke. I lease a brand new Dodge Ram Big Horn 4x4 Truck with a sticker value of $45,000 and my monthly lease payment is $289. They practically give the things away in November when they want to get rid of last years model.
I make a middle class income, and have a 15 year mortgage, and am consumer debt free so its very possible to do it especially if you don't live on the coasts.
@Chip Steiner
Nonsense. Do without until you can save up. No one “needs” debt for depreciating assets like cars and refrigerators. That’s the mentality that got a lot of these people in trouble.
I’d love to see their spending records, how many kids they chose to produce, how often they “needed” a new car.
I'm in my late 40's and my wife and I will likely be getting out of this country in the next few years and going to live abroad somewhere that has more communal and liberal/socialist values and policies. It's not that we can't afford to live here, but why would we want to?
581
@Ball Moore
Make the move soon. Most of the places you'd likely want to go won't take people over 55. Believe me, I've looked!
7
@Ball Moore Unless you give up your American citizenship, the US will still look for your annual tax dollars. Also, I have friends that are citizens of other countries with healthcare, but have lived here for decades, and when I ask why don't they go back and get their coverage, the answer is not that easy since they haven't paid into the system, they don't get the benefit.
1
Hear you loud and clear. We're following you out. This banana republic is no place we want to be in our sunset years. Best of luck.
3
We hear about the unfathomable wealth being created by American companies; Apple hitting $1 trillion in value, Amazon making one human worth $150 billion, not to mention Google, Facebook, etc.
Does it not shame us in the eyes of the rest of the world that in a country with that amount of wealth the majority of citizens struggle to survive, and then when older literally can't survive, worse off than an animal past its prime and put out to pasture?
The system's broken.
2198
Shame us?????? Why shame us????? Why not shame Apple etc who could have paid their employees and shareholders more all long? That is the trickle down theory of economics and as you can see it does NOT work. Given any opportunity corporations like people will hang onto every last penny.
1
@JHM
"The system's broken."
There is no system. If you like to call a "system of no-system" really a system then there is one. That´s the problem.
Any true social security system depends on insurance systems to cover usual risiks as follows:
- Health care
- Retirement
- Nursery
- Unemployment
- Free education - student fees
(in descending order)
Health care: Some people are healthy until 95, some have to face severe problems at 40 (Cancer surgery) You can never know. It´s a kind of individual lottery. Giving private savings is nonsense. Too much for the non affected, too few for the serious ill ones.
Nursery: Similar.
Retirement: Private saving plans are fine. But this doesn´t help when stocks and securities lose their value due to later bankruptcy of first class issuers estimated as serious deptors (Remember GM, Lehman for example and - recently - GE). It´s also some kind of lottery, particularly when it´s a company pension system like GM.)
So the only appropriate way to organize the covering of these risks is a insurance system.
Social securitiy systems can never cut out all kind of private bankruptcies. They even should not. But these systems are built to reduce the foreseeable frequency significantly - particularly in non-culpable circumstances - and to avoid also costly welfare. That´s what they are made for.
You don´t need any studies to realize what is going to happen when there is no social security - insurance - system. This is well known for 100 years.
1
@JHM It ain't broken, it never had a chance--those in government and special interests/self interests have usurped and eaten away at the balance-of-power structure.
When older desperate citizens start going postal we will see change.
43
@gene - Mass shootings are a regular feature of American life. What has changed in response to them?
5
Part of the problem is that while we have seek a dynamic shift in who carries the burden of achieving financial security, the American education system does not require that student learn basic personal finances. I suspect that many of those in dire straights could have avoided catastrophe with better planning.
If you read this comment and you have enough runway to save yourself, please read The Bogleheads Guide to Investing- especially if you are in your 20s or new to the workforce. It is as much of a book on personal finance as it is on investing as it gives you the roadmap to achieving financial security. It has completely changed my approach to money, and my family is more secure as a result.
12
@Boston This is good advice if you are lucky enough to be able to invest even a little. Unfortunately many in this great, wealthy nation are working long hours and just barely surviving.
16
@Susan
Anyone can set aside a dime of every dollar if they truly are motivated.
If people want health stop voting for Republicans.
1307
@Vicki Ralls They'd rather that 51% of Americans (women) NOT have access to abortion and in some of their eyes, birth control, and that gays be stuffed back in the closet and unlimited guns for everyone. More than anything else, apparently. Oh, and then there's racism.
11
@Vicki Ralls: Bingo!
8
No your wrong there, stop voting Republicans AND Democrats.
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For all its flaws, and there are many, the compromises my country agreed on and strove to maintain since, roughly, the late 40s , is still working, even if adjustments are required in a changing global economy.
Universal single-payer healthcare and late life safety and dignity are here considered as fundamental rights. You judge a civilization , before anything else, on the manner the weakest ( for scores of reasons) are considered and taken care of. There is no liberty without care, the latter enabling the former. This is not ideology, this is fact.
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