This study is very poorly interpreted. It specifically excludes government and corporate pensions (including social security) from its calculation.

Consider:

1. Avg income (all ages) in the US is ~50k/yr

2. Avg social security is ~25k/yr (mostly untaxed)

So including social security in the calculation HALVES the annual burn rate, more than doubling your runway because of greater interest compounding on savings.

Additionally, many baby boomers retiring today have some kind of additional corporate pension from their early careers in the 70s and 80s and these are all government guaranteed, even if the issuing firm goes bankrupt. That probably adds another 5-10k/yr per person on avg.

And finally, most retirees today own houses that have massively appreciated since purchase. Given very favorable laws on cap gains from primary residence sales + low interest rates on borrowing against a home, most retirees probably have a nice additional cushion to draw from.

Overall, this article is FUD. Unless there's a massive economic recession/depression in the near future, most retirees will be absolutely fine. The poorest will struggle, but probably no more than they have since Reaganomics kicked in 40years ago.