You hear it all the time. Old people aren't retiring the way they used to and it's keeping young people from finding jobs. The young are so quick to blame the old for high unemployment, but the old have bills to pay too. The problem isn't that 60 year olds don't WANT to retire, but that they CAN'T.
The days of pensions are gone. The few jobs that have them are fazing them out. Heck, pensions bankrupted Detroit and everyone is scrambling to keep that from being the new norm. Your retirement savings is up to you and only you, like it or not. But not all of us are in jobs that pay well enough to allow for savings.
And that's where the real threat to retirement is. The majority of working people live paycheck to paycheck. Every last dime is used. We all want to save, but we all want the lights to stay on too. Saving up for retirement requires money. When you don't have spare money, you can't save. When you can't save for retirement, you can't retire so you work either until your body gives up on you and you're forced out or you die. That's reality.
It also takes money to play the stock market or buy rental property which are huge risks that most working class folks can't afford to take.
So I don't blame the old for needing to work longer. I understand that I won't be able to retire either. I even understand that Social Security isn't the answer to my future money woes.
Corporate America used to take care of their workers, valued their workers. Not with pensions necessarily, but with fair pay. Then they placed their own greed over their workers' well being and called it capitalism. They kept making their fortunes, but at our expense.
So young folks complaining about old folks keeping jobs away from you, don't blame the old. Blame their bosses.
