It’s hard for me to feel sympathy for a generation that saw the largest expansion of wealth and failed to put $1000 a year away in an index. Over 40 years that’s just over $200k in current dollars at 7% inflation adjusted return.
Individuals own wealth, not generations, and individual wealth is distributed extremely unevenly.
"The top 10% of households by wealth had $6.7 million on average. As a group, they held 66.9% of total household wealth. The bottom 50% of households by wealth had $50,000 on average. As a group, they held only 2.5% of total household wealth." https://www.stlouisfed.org/institute-for-economic-equity/the...
At the start of my career, I earned very little (I was lucky to have a job at all). Certainly no spare money to save for the first decade.
Then house prices went insane, and the financial crash and almost zero interest rates meant we got no value from compounding the minimal amount I could save for most of the rest of my working life so far.
I am lucky in the sense that I now earn a lot compared to my peers. I am fully in catch up mode. Despite what I earn, the majority of it goes to pension contributions and paying off my very large mortgage (on a tiny house next to the railway tracks). I have very little disposable income.
And I am doing a lot better than most of my peers, who don't even have the luxury of having somewhere to live and not being in absolute poverty when they retire.
Some people have obviously done very well in my generation, but most have not.
2) I'm afraid 7% above and beyond inflation is pretty optimistic going forward
US Poverty level for a couple retiring today is $20K/yr. You need $500K saved up to get that kind of income in retirement. And next year, inflation means you need even more.
Many voices have been saying that SS can't be relied on since about 1981.
He's talking to people who normally wouldn't bother to vote, telling them if they actually did it just this once he'd fix the problems the current administration caused that they're facing (one of his standard talking points) so they can go back to business as usual.
For those who qualify for Social Security the minimum benefit for 2024 is $50.90/mo (10 yrs of work) and $1,066.50 for 30 years of work [1].
For what you write to be true, the Administration would have to have a rule that if you apply for disability income when you are of working age, you get enough to survive for life even if you paid nothing into the system (through FICA), but if you apply past the retirement age and you didn't pay into the system, you get basically nothing. I suppose that could be true (and I'm not going to search the web to try to find out) but it seems unlikely.
If you have a very strong work ethic, but have piss-poor ability to get paid a decent income and never applied for Social Security disability income, you've almost certainly worked some and consequently paid some amount into the system. When you get to retirement age, my strong guess (although I don't have personal knowledge) is that the SSI program kicks in such that the combination of your month Social Security retirement check and the SSI check adds up to $943 if you are single (plus $20 because the first $20 per month of non-SSI income is not counted) just like the millions of chronic schizophrenics that went on SSI in their 20s who never paid any FICA.
But if someone replies saying that they personally know an American with no other sources of income and no savings who has applied, but gets less than $943 a month from Social Security, I'll believe them.
ADDED. If you apply for disability or retirement benefits, the Administration automatically assesses whether you qualify for SSI benefits: one application suffices for both programs.
You should feel sympathy toward them because not all monetary gains are felt uniformly. If you look at the savings from median Americans and median wages you’ll notice most Americans are not actually wealthy as the media portrays.
When you have the working poor battling payday lenders, bank fees, credit card debt, increasing healthcare costs, or lack of homeownership for their entire lives why would you expect them to suddenly become rich when they retire?
I mean for myself I didn’t start saving aggressively until I was 32 and I didn’t get my first programming job until I was 25. I was 28 when I met the first person in my life that owned stocks (CTO of my second job).
I already have more money saved for retirement than my parents and siblings combined. I honestly attribute this to complete luck too. I could have easily ended up like them financially.
I suppose I should count myself blessed because my parents raised me to value education, a love for learning, and reading books. I’ll forever be grateful for them because I’m positive I’ll be able to provide a better life for my family because of their sacrifice.
A sacrifice not everyone is even allowed to make.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/americas-average-retirement...
I honestly suggest you go to your local foodbank and talk to the people that use it. You should also go to your local nursing home that takes medicare residents as well.
Tell them to their face what you truly believe after hearing their stories.