America is facing a retirement crisis that is so colossal that it threatens to collapse the entire financial system. Millions upon millions of Baby Boomers are preparing to retire, but when you take a close look at the numbers it quickly becomes clear that it is mathematically impossible for us to keep the financial promises that we have made to them. The truth is that the days when tens of millions of elderly Americans could enjoy a very comfortable retirement are rapidly drawing to a close. Why? Well, because there is no money. The U.S. government is supposed to have 2.5 trillion dollars in the Social Security trust fund for all of these retiring Baby Boomers, but they “borrowed” all of that money over the past 30 years to pay other bills. Hundreds of other government and corporate pension programs across the United States are either severely underfunded or are not funded at all. Meanwhile, American workers have been contributing pitifully small amounts to their own retirement funds. Americans have been too busy drowning in debt as the pursue the American Dream to worry about putting away anything for the future. So where does all of that leave us? It leaves us with a complete and total financial nightmare on our hands.
An increasing number of Americans are starting to wake up to this new reality. In fact, a solid majority of American workers do not believe that the Social Security system will pay them benefits when they retire.
Just think about that for a moment.
Over half the working population has completely lost faith in the Social Security system.
That is what you call a crisis.
But that lack of faith has not resulted in increased private saving for retirement.
Right now approximately half of all American workers have less than $2000 saved for retirement.
That certainly won’t go very far.
But to a certain extent, you can’t blame people for not saving.
The truth is that an increasing number of Americans are just trying to find some way to survive in this horrible economy.
According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck. That was up significantly from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
How can people save up tens of thousands of dollars for retirement if they are living month to month?
It is just not going to happen.
As the economy continues to collapse, the retirement crisis is going to get even worse. Something is going to have to give. Things are going to become very uncomfortable for our politicians as they are forced to deal with this growing crisis.
So just how bad are things already?
The following are ten incredible statistics about America’s coming retirement crisis that will blow your mind….
1 – According to one new poll, six of 10 non-retirees believe that Social Security won’t be able to pay them benefits when they stop working.
2 – There is supposed to be approximately 2.5 trillion dollars in the Social Security trust fund, but the U.S. government has taken all of that money out and has spent it over the last 30 years.
3 – According to the Congressional Budget Office, this year the Social Security system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes. This was not supposed to happen until at least 2016.
4 – 35% of Americans over the age of 65 rely almost totally on Social Security alone.
5 – Back in 1950 each retiree’s Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers. Today, each retiree’s Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers. By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.
6 – 56% of current retirees believe that the government will eventually cut their Social Security benefits.
7 – Approximately half of all American workers have less than $2000 saved for retirement.
8 – According to one survey, 36 percent of Americans say that they don’t contribute anything at all to retirement savings.
9 – According to another recent survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age at some point during the past year.
10 – According to an official U.S. government report, rapidly growing interest costs on the U.S. national debt together with spending on major entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare will absorb approximately 92 cents of every dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019. That is before one penny is spent on anything else.