More than 200 House Democrats are sponsoring a bill to expand Social Security benefits, funded by a dramatic increase in taxes. California, Connecticut, Illinois and Oregon have established state-run retirement plans for private sector-workers, which some progressives hope will supplant 401(k)s. But there is no retirement crisis among either today’s retirees or tomorrow’s, according to a Wall Street Journal commentary. Eight in 10 retirees tell Gallup they have enough money to “live comfortably,” and 6 in 10 working-age households say the same. Seventy-five percent of retirees tell the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances they have “at least enough to maintain [their] standard of living,” up from 61 percent in 1992. Census Bureau research that uses Internal Revenue Service data to measure retirees’ incomes found that the over-65 poverty rate was only 6.7 percent in 2012, down from 9.7 percent in 1990 and lower than any other age group. Read the full commentary. (Subscription required.)
*The views expressed in this commentary are from the author/publication cited, are meant for informative purposes only, and are not an official position of ABI.