The Elderly Population

This generation has now reached an get on with where m some(prenominal) ar thinking much or less what to do in their retirement years and ar considering their finances and whether those finances exit be sufficient to carry them through their retirement years. These Americans are part of the current transcription of Social security measures and Medicare and hire become concerned by reports that these programs are approaching a point of bankruptcy which give leave millions of Americans in dread straits.

Richman looks to the current group about to retire, those in their 50s, and finds that, based on a study by the Rand Corporation, most Americans who dupe retired or who will do so shortly have through with(p) at best an adequate job of saving bountiful to assure their longsighted-term economic security. Even then, these community will have such security save as long as Medicare, Social Security, and private pension funds pass off to deliver at or uprise the present levels. This is non something that is itself assured, given the concerns about imminent bankruptcy to the administration and threats to wobble these systems in ways which might impact retired Americans in the near future. Those in their 30s and 40s should take heed and drastic everyy increase their savings or they will not be able to spread to retire.

The Rand Corporation study found that the total assets of the median(prenominal) family unit nearing retirement stands at $99,350. This amount of gold is barely seemly to support two people for three ye

Entitlement payments on Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare now exceed all other domestic spending. Entitlements are maturement faster than any other part of the federal government budget. In the bygone two decades, real spending on entitlements (adjusted for inflation) grew between 6 and 7 percent a year, while the economy grew by less than 3 percent per year. Social Security payments are growing in real terms at about 6 percent a year, but Medicare and Medicaid are growing at double-digit rates (Miller, 1994, 280-281).

Concerns about the Social Security system have been growing in recent years with the knowledge that the system may be failing so that when the presently younger generations get older, the system will not have money for their old shape up but will be bankrupt. The danger is evident first in the size of the entitlement system:

ars at the current standard of living, and it would generate an annual income of simply $7,000 if it were invested in Treasury bonds today. In terms of the entire population, only those in the 90th percentile have sufficient assets to retire. Richman (1995) concludes that people simply do not save enough, and he notes a number of motives why this is so. For the population as a whole, high gear rates of divorce and the growing prevalence of single-parent households are reasons. hatful in thee households do not make enough money and do not save enough. The median wealth of wed couples in the region of 51 to 61 years of age is seen in the fact that they have assets averaging $132,200, and this is nearly four measure the savings of those who are divorced or who never wed at all. Those who are healthy are also much likely to be wealthy--those who are healthy have median assets of $360,000, more than four times the assets of those who have been sickly. Another reason for the trend is that government programs such as Social Security and Medicare actually discourage saving and make people more dependent on the programs. Cle
Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.