Progressives Force Citizens Into Poverty : Savings Raided/Lost

Thank you Mr Obama and the other progressive socialist Democrats for your leadership in bring our country to her knees. What better way to destroy our way of life then to make sure the population has no choice then to accept dependency and poverty as a way of life.

Workers are saving less as they have no choice, it's save less or be cast into the street. Little wonder then why many are taking early withdrawals from their 401K's as well.

This is the "fundamental "change that Mr Obama talked about in 2008 when was running for president. And after 4 years of crushing failure in all areas of our economy and foreign policy, the majority of the population decided to vote for more of the same last November. Why would they do this?

Most taking heads in the media exclaim the general public as smart and aware of their destiny, but given that these smart voters willingly decided to accept 4 more years of decline makes for the Clinton reframe " a willing acceptance of disbelief" a more realistic argument that the voting public isn't as smart as they once were thought to be.

Workers Saving Too Little to Retire
March 22, 2013
Source: Kelly Greene and Vipal Monga, "Workers Saving Too Little to Retire," Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2013.

More Americans than ever before will soon be retiring and evidence suggests many are not saving enough for retirement. A combination of financial and demographic forces is making it more difficult for households to prepare for their future, says the Wall Street Journal.

• An updated 2012 report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) shows that 57 percent of U.S. workers reported less than $25,000 in total household savings and investments, excluding their homes, which represented a 7 percent increase over 2008.
• Twenty-eight percent of respondents in the survey had no confidence that they will have enough money to retire, which is the highest level in the study's 23-year history.
• According to the Society of Actuaries, as much as $97 billion could be added to corporate pension liabilities because of rising life expectancy.

Longer lives means more costs must be spread out over the same amount of retirement savings. Many households are struggling to find the extra income to contribute to retirement as living costs have risen in the last decade, particularly during the Great Recession.

• About 50 percent of the workers and retirees in the EBRI survey said they would be unable to come up with $2,000 if an unexpected need were to arise in the next month.
• While the survey does not count traditional pensions, which are designed to provide retirees with steady income throughout their lives, the portion of private sector workers who receive these retirement plans has declined significantly.
• Only 3 percent of workers in 2011 were covered by defined-benefit plans, down from 28 percent in 1979.

For the companies that do offer those plans, they will likely have to kick in extra funds to account for longer life spans.

• In 2013, a male who retires at age 65 is expected to live an additional 20.5 years and a female who retires at age 65 is expected to live an additional 22.7 years.
• U.S. pension obligations for all publicly traded companies totaled $1.93 trillion at the end of 2012, up from $1.6 trillion in 2008.

Greater life expectancy and less savings mean that fewer Americans will have enough money to last throughout retirement and companies will face larger pension liabilities.