Baby Boomers, the Richest Generation, Are in the Middle of a Retirement Crisis

The thing about end-of-life care for high needs individuals goes very quickly to questions about nation specific policy in the welfare state (or lack of it)

I'm not saying this specific problem doesn't exist in a lot of western democracies, but the nature of how and why your retirement nest egg is drained and at what rate varies.

Basically, altzheimers is awful, and it drains anyone's nest egg but exactly when, and why, and at what rate and to what end-outcome is highly specific to where you are. It works out different in Japan, Australia, Argentina, the USA.

The messaging in Australia around "how much is enough" in our equivalent of the 401(k) is quite complex. If you have more than $500,000 (this is fermi-number correct, the literal amount is different) for instance, you can't qualify for state pension but can maybe get a seniors health card.

"a comfortable income" for retired people is said (again in Australia) to be $60,000 or less. This is significantly smaller than many people think. It depends on owning your own home. it depends on your expectations of mortality: a secondary problem is that people are terrified of drawing down on capital even though retirement funding models in many economies is PREDICATED on doing this. (we even have a stipulated 4% withdrawal rate minimum to try and ensure people reduce their capital) So, instead people massively over-achieve, to live off income only, and leave a huge estate to their kids.

"it's complicated"

if we can't retire in the future, they can't retire now. it's only fair; send them back to work till they fall over.

The expectation that your can start working in your late 20s and stop in your mid 60s and live another 20 years is clearly untenable. Vonnegut lamented that people no longer had 50 that working lives, but a world in which you start working at 16, stop at 70, and die at 75 allows for a better retirement