35 shocking statistics that will scare Baby Boomers

The Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.  Meanwhile, nearly half of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.  The truth is that I was being incredibly kind when I said earlier that we are "woefully unprepared" for what is coming.  The biggest retirement crisis in history is rapidly approaching, and a lot of the promises that were made to the Baby Boomers are going to get broken.

The following are 35 incredibly shocking statistics that will scare just about any Baby Boomer...

1. Right now, there are somewhere around 40 million senior citizens in the United States.  By 2050 that number is projected to skyrocket to 89 million.

2. According to one recent poll, 25 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no retirement savings at all.

3. 26 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no personal savings whatsoever.

4. One survey that covered all American workers found that 46 percent of them have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.

5. According to a survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, "60 percent of American workers said the total value of their savings and investments is less than $25,000".

6. A Pew Research survey found that half of all Baby Boomers say that their household financial situations have deteriorated over the past year.

7. 67 percent of all American workers believe that they "are a little or a lot behind schedule on saving for retirement".

8. Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

9. More elderly Americans than ever are finding that they must continue working once they reach their retirement years.  Between 1985 and 2010, the percentage of Americans in the 65 to 69-year-old age bracket that were still working increased from 18 percent to 32 percent.

10. Back in 1991, half of all American workers planned to retire before they reached the age of 65.  Today, that number has declined to 23 percent. Read more >>

US birthrate hits all-time low due to weak economy

*During the recession, the birthrate dropped after a high in 2007

*The recession has been officially over for four years

*The birthrate hit an all-time low in 2011 and stayed there in 2012

*Economic uncertainty coupled with a general trend towards fewer births means there may not be a bounce-back in birthrate

The recession has been over for four years, but the birth rate in the U.S. continues to fall as many people struggle with a sluggish economy and financial uncertainty.

According to a recent analysis by the Pew Institute, since 2007 when there were a record 4,316,233 births, the number of births has been steadily declining, with 4,007,000 births in 2012 - the lowest number since 1998. Analysts say that the birthrate is dictated by the economy.

'When times are up, births go up,' D’Vora Cohn, a senior writer at Pew Research Center, told Today. 'When times are bad, births go down.'

Despite the recession being officially over for four years, the weak recovery and economic uncertainty has resulted in the national birthrate hitting an all-time low in 2011, and staying there in 2012. Read more >>

Nearly 40 percent of U.S. adults act as caregivers for loved one

Nearly 40 percent of American adults care for someone with serious health issues, a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday shows.

Four in 10 adults care for a loved one suffering from poor health, up from 30 percent in 2010.

"Some of it is the aging of the population, some of it is the survival of individuals of chronic conditions which previously would've been fatal and some of it has been improved diagnosis so we can diagnose chronic conditions earlier than we would have in years past," said Dr. Albert Siu, of the Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, to CBSNews.com.

The Pew study also found that 75 percent of adults aged 65 and older suffer from a chronic condition such as high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease.

"This has been recognized as a problem that has increased probably over the last almost 20 years, that we've seen a rising number of individuals with multiple chronic conditions," said Siu.

Today, people aged 65 and over represent 12.4 percent of the American population, but that number is expected to jump to 19 percent of the population by 2030.

The Pew study shows that as the U.S. population ages and medical advances save and extend more lives, care giving is likely to become more of a common role than ever before. Read more >>

Majority Views NSA Phone Tracking as Acceptable Anti-terror Tactic

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

― Mark Twain


A majority of Americans – 56% – say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism, though a substantial minority – 41% – say it is unacceptable. And while the public is more evenly divided over the government’s monitoring of email and other online activities to prevent possible terrorism, these views are largely unchanged since 2002, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center and The Washington Post, conducted June 6-9 among 1,004 adults, finds no indications that last week’s revelations of the government’s collection of phone records and internet data have altered fundamental public views about the tradeoff between investigating possible terrorism and protecting personal privacy.

Currently 62% say it is more important for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy. Just 34% say it is more important for the government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats.

These opinions have changed little since an ABC News/Washington Post survey in January 2006. Currently, there are only modest partisan differences in these opinions: 69% of Democrats say it is more important for the government to investigate terrorist threats, even at the expense of personal privacy, as do 62% of Republicans and 59% of independents. Read more >>

Moms are primary breadwinners in 40% of U.S. households

A record 40% of households with children include "breadwinner moms," according to a report out today. These moms are the sole or primary source of income for households with children younger than 18, a Pew Research Center analysis finds. The analysis looked at data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

"The share of households with children where there is a mother who is the sole or primary breadwinner is up about fourfold from 1960, when it was only 11%," says report co-author Kim Parker, associate director of Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project.

These moms include two groups: 5.1 million (37%) are married mothers who have a higher income than their husbands, and 8.6 million (63%) are single mothers. The median family income for the first group was $79,800 in 2011, compared with $23,000 for the single mothers.

The growth of breadwinner moms is tied to women's increased employment rate and rising education levels, Parker says. Read more >>

Young adults too broke to get loans

It's not because legions of Americans under age 35 have suddenly become fiscally responsible. It's more likely that their shaky economic foundations either prevent them from qualifying for a loan or even thinking about applying for one, according to those studying the trend.

"It's a sign of economic struggle, not economic success," said Richard Fry, senior economist at the Pew Research Center. "They don't have the mortgage, but they don't have the house."
The center found that young adults' debt levels dropped nearly 14% between 2001 and 2010, while rising 63% for those age 35 and older, according to a recent Pew study.

The real-world ramifications are eye-popping. The share of younger households owning their primary residence fell to 34% in 2011, down from 40% in 2007. Only 66% owned or leased at least one vehicle in 2011, down from 73% four years earlier, as car loans plunged. Credit card balances have also fallen.

The only debt on the rise is student loans. In 2007, just over a third of young households had outstanding student debt. That jumped to 40% in 2010. Read more >>

Fiscal cliff negotiations reviving debate about screwing Retirees out of Social Security

Yes, we can fix Social Security (but it won't be pretty)
The fiscal cliff negotiations are reviving the debate about that other financial elephant in the room: Social Security. Under current government estimates, Social Security could face funding shortfalls in about two decades if nothing changes. That’s because the U.S. population is aging -- and generally living longer.

That sounds like a disheartening scenario for workers who are currently paying into Social Security and worry that they won’t get as much out of it once they retire.  About half of the Americans polled by Pew Research Center earlier this year believe it’s not likely there will be enough money in Social Security and Medicare to maintain current benefit levels into the future.

But experts say there are ways to fix Social Security. Politicians just may not like trying to sell those changes to the American people.

It has happened before, though. In the mid-1980s, none other than President Ronald Reagan, working with Democrats in Congress, oversaw a major overhaul of the nation’s retirement safety net.

That’s something many say seems less likely these days.

“There are politicians – and especially in the Senate but also in the House as well – who could work together and come to an agreement,” said Alan Auerbach, a professor of law and economics at the University of California, Berkeley. “But they’re not the majority of Congress.” Read more >>

Americans Aged 18-29 Have A More Favorable Response To Socialism Than To Capitalism

In the prior post, we showed a presentation that looked at America from the perspective of a corporation and how it would be completely unsustainable. Luckily, there is little probability that America will ever have anything to do with S-Corp status, and far more likely end up as an agrarian Kolhoz. The reason: based on a Pew survey of America's youth, or those aged 18-29, more have a positive view response toward Socialism than they do toward Capitalism. We will leave it at that.

Socialism: 49% Positive / 43% Negative.
Capitalism: 46% Positive / 47% Negative.
Read More >>

Newsweek to end print edition in December

After 80 years in print, Newsweek is going all-digital starting early next year. The last print edition in the United States will be the Dec. 31 issue, says Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, in a statement.

The Washington Post company sold Newsweek In 2010 to businessman Sidney Harman for $1 in exchange for taking up its financial obligations. It was Brown's then two-year-old Daily Beast online news operation.

In an announcement, Brown says that the journalism business has been "increasingly affected by the challenging print advertising environment," and notes that 39% Americans in a recent Pew Research Study say they get their news from an online source. Read more >>

Median Income Worse Now Than It Was During Great Recession

A new report put out by the Pew Research Center finds that the median income is worse now than it was during the Great Recession.

According to Pew, the Census Bureau showed that the median income for American households in 2009 – the official end of the Great Recession – was $52,195 (in 2011 dollars), while the median income dipped to $50,054 last year, falling 4.1 percent over two years.

“The decrease in household income from 2009 to 2011 almost exactly equaled the decrease in income in the two years of the recession,” the Pew report stated. “During the Great Recession, the median U.S. household income (in 2011 dollars) dropped from $54,489 in 2007 to $52,195 in 2009, a loss of 4.2 percent. By this yardstick, the recovery from the Great Recession is bypassing the nation’s households.” Read more >>

Study: Middle-class poorer, earn less

For the first time since at least World War II, middle-class families finished the first decade of the 21st century poorer and with lower incomes than they had 10 years earlier. And 85% of those surveyed say that in the 2000s, it was harder than before to maintain a middle-class lifestyle, according to a study out Wednesday by the Pew Research Center for Social and Demographic Trends.

Median household income dropped nearly $3,500 for a three-person household, to $69,487 a year, the Pew study said. The median household's net worth dropped 28% to $93,150. Incomes have dropped since 2000, while wealth rose modestly early in the decade before gains were wiped out by the recession that began in 2007 recession and the financial crisis sparked in 2008, said Paul Taylor, a Pew executive vice president.

"That the middle class always enjoys a rising standard of living is part of America's sense of itself, and it has always been true - until now," Taylor said in an interview, describing the 2000s as a "lost decade" for the middle class. "It's been 11 years since the peak in household incomes, and that covers the early part of the decade as well." Read more >>

Many Use Payday Loans to Cover Food, Rent

Many people think of payday loans as a way to cover an unexpected emergency – such as a car repair or medical expense – until your next paycheck comes in. But nearly seven in 10 people who use the short-term, high-fee loans rely on them for recurring, everyday expenses such as rent, food, utilities or car payments, according to a report published Wednesday.

And instead of using them for one quick fix, many are either seeking extensions or borrowing similar amounts again and again. That’s putting many people in debt to payday lenders for months at a time, at very high cost. “It’s not because of some unusual need that people are turning to payday loans. It’s because of some regular need,” said Nick Bourke of the Pew Center on the States, which published the report.

Payday lenders defend their industry, saying today's economic  reality is that many people regularly need a financial bridge to their next paycheck. “Of course there’s recurring use for this product. It’s often the best option for millions of Americans that are looking to manage their financial obligations,” said Amy Cantu, spokeswoman for the Community Financial Services Association of America, a trade group for payday lenders.

The Pew researchers found that parents are more likely to use payday loans than people without kids, especially if the household income is less than $50,000 a year, about the nation's median. In addition, people who are separated or divorced are more likely to use them than those who are married or single. Read more >>

Poverty in America: Faces behind the figures

At a food pantry in a Chicago suburb, a 38-year-old mother of two breaks into tears. She and her husband have been out of work for nearly two years. Their house and car are gone. So is their foothold in the middle class and, at times, their self-esteem.

"It's like there is no way out," says Kris Fallon.

She is trapped like so many others, destitute in the midst of America's abundance. Last week, the Census Bureau released new figures showing that nearly one in six Americans lives in poverty — a record 46.2 million people. The poverty rate, pegged at 15.1 percent, is the highest of any major industrialized nation, and many experts believe it could get worse before it abates.

The numbers are daunting — but they also can seem abstract and numbing without names and faces. More...

31 states are short over 1 trillion on pensions

The upshot of a recently released study suggests that more than half of all states in America are short of funds for the retirement benefits they have promised to pensioners.

According to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, 31 states are short of USD 1.26 trillion on promises to the retirees and in just one year the funding gap has grown by 26 percent. The funding levels of ten additional states have also deteriorated, a press TV correspondent reported on Wednesday.

Pensions are deemed "underfunded" when states are unable to pay at least 80 percent of liabilities, according to results of the study by the nonprofit think tank. Such pensions affect everyone because they mean higher taxes or cuts in essential public services.

“If we promised more than what is there what do we do? Magic?” Economic analyst Rollin Amore asked.

Most states are legally bound to pay for the pensions; they may borrow from other states rather than the federal government, if they don't have the money in their treasury. Many Capitol Hill lawmakers have already backed legislations to prevent the federal government from bailing out states.

The gaps are already straining governments and stoking political fights over the workers' benefits in states such as New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin. More...

Poll: Public Distrust in Media At All Time High

Image via Wikipedia

The public is finally walking up to media bias, corruption, and cowardice in the face of political power. For years, main stream media have served as nothing more than stenographers for those in power, and handmaidens for the government.

Last December, for the first time in a Pew Research Center survey, more people said they got most of their national and international news from the internet than said newspapers were their main source.

Pew Research reports:

The public's assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans' views of media bias and independence now match previous lows.

Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate. In the initial survey in this series about the news media's performance in 1985, 55% said news stories were accurate while 34% said they were inaccurate. That percentage had fallen sharply by the late 1990s and has remained low over the last decade.

Similarly, only about a quarter (26%) now say that news organizations are careful that their reporting is not politically biased, compared with 60% who say news organizations are politically biased. And the percentages saying that news organizations are independent of powerful people and organizations (20%) or are willing to admit their mistakes (21%) now also match all-time lows.

Republicans continue to be highly critical of the news media in nearly all respects. However, much of the increase in negative attitudes toward the news media over the last two years is driven by increasingly unfavorable evaluations by Democrats.

On several measures, Democratic criticism of the news media has grown by double-digits since 2007. Today, most Democrats (59%) say that the reports of news organizations are often inaccurate; just 43% said this two years ago. Democrats are also now more likely than they were in 2007 to identify favoritism in the media: Two-thirds (67%) say the press tends to favor one side rather than to treat all sides fairly, up from 54%. And while just a third of Democrats (33%) say news organizations are "too critical of America," that reflects a 10-point increase since 2007.

The partisan gaps in several of these opinions, which had widened considerably over the past decade, have narrowed. There are some notable exceptions to these trends, however, as Republicans increasingly see news organizations as influenced by powerful people and organizations and not professional, while Democrats' views have changed little.

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press' biennial media attitudes survey, conducted July 22-26 among 1,506 adults reached on landlines and cell phones, finds that even as the party gaps in several criticisms of the press have lessened over the past few years, views of many individual media sources are deeply divided along party lines.

Democrats hold considerably more positive views than Republicans of CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and the news operations of the broadcast networks, and their views of National Public Radio are somewhat more favorable than those of Republicans. By contrast, views of Fox News -- and to a lesser extent The Wall Street Journal -- are more positive among Republicans than Democrats.

Partisan differences in views of Fox News have increased substantially since 2007. Today, a large majority of Republicans view Fox News positively (72%), compared with just 43% of Democrats. In 2007, 73% of Republicans and 61% of Democrats viewed Fox News favorably. Three-quarters (75%) of Democrats assess CNN favorably, while just 44% of Republicans do so, which is little changed from two years ago. MSNBC also rates substantially higher among Democrats (60%) than among Republicans (34%).

But the starkest partisan division is seen in assessments of The New York Times. Although most Americans are not familiar enough with the Times to express an opinion, Republicans view The New York Times negatively by a margin of nearly two-to-one (31% to 16%), while Democrats view it positively by an almost five-to-one margin (39% to 8%). More independents rate the Times favorably (29%) than unfavorably (18%).

More favorable Republican ratings are reserved for The Wall Street Journal. Within the GOP, the balance of favorable to unfavorable assessments of the Journal is second only to that for Fox News. Democratic and independent assessments of The Wall Street Journal are also, on balance, positive. And the balance of opinion regarding National Public Radio is favorable across the board; however, Democratic opinions of NPR are somewhat more positive than those of Republicans (50% favorable vs. 39% favorable).

The poll finds that television remains the dominant news source for the public, with 71% saying they get most of their national and international news from television. More than four-in-ten (42%) say they get most of their news on these subjects from the internet, compared with 33% who cite newspapers. Last December, for the first time in a Pew Research Center survey, more people said they got most of their national and international news from the internet than said newspapers were their main source.

However, online news lags behind newspapers as a source for news about local issues. As with national and international news, most people (64%) cite television as their main source for local news. Yet despite declines in newspaper readership over the last several years, about four-in-ten people (41%) turn to newspapers for news about issues and events in their local area, more than twice the number that turn to the internet for local news (17%).

The public's impressions of which news organizations do the most to uncover local news stories largely mirror the top sources for local news. More than four-in-ten (44%) say that local television stations do the most to uncover and report on important local issues, while a quarter (25%) identify local newspapers as the primary sources of local news reporting. Far fewer people identify local independent online organizations (11%) or radio stations (10%) as responsible for uncovering most local news stories. Even among those who get most of their local news from newspapers, about as many say most original local reporting is done by television stations (41%) as by newspapers (38%).

Long-Term Views of Press Performance

The public has long been critical of the press in several areas: in 1985, majorities said that news organizations tried to cover up mistakes, tended to favor one side on political and social issues and were influenced by the powerful.

However, in that initial survey on press performance, conducted by the Times-Mirror Center, most people (55%) said that news organizations "get the facts straight," while 34% said stories were often inaccurate.

Opinions about the accuracy of news stories fluctuated over the next decade, but by the late 1990s majorities said that news stories are often inaccurate. That has been the case for the past decade as well, with the exception of a brief period in fall 2001, when coverage of 9/11 and terrorism boosted the press's positive ratings. In the current survey, 63% say news stories are often inaccurate.

Similarly, the proportion saying news organizations "try to cover up their mistakes" has reached a high of 70%, up from 63% two years ago. In 1985, a smaller majority (55%) said news organizations tried to cover up their mistakes. And while most Americans (59%) see news organizations as "highly professional," the proportion expressing this view also has slipped since 2007 (66%). In 1985, 72% said news organizations were highly professional.

The pattern is the same regarding public attitudes about whether the press is biased, deals with all sides fairly, and is independent.

In 1985, fewer than half (45%) said news organizations were politically biased, while 36% said they were careful to avoid bias. Today, by greater than two-to-one (60% to 26%), more say the press is biased.

Nearly three-quarters (74%) say news organizations tend to favor one side in dealing with political and social issues, while just 18% say they deal fairly with all sides. The proportion saying the press favors one side has risen eight points since 2007 (from 66%). In 1985, a much smaller majority (53%) said the press favored one side.

There has been a comparable shift in views of the press's independence. Nearly three-quarters (74%) now say news organizations are influenced by powerful people and organizations compared with 20% who say they are pretty independent. In 1985, by a far smaller margin, more said that news organizations were influenced by the powerful than said they were pretty independent (53% to 37%).

Notably, the balance of opinion about whether news organizations are liberal or conservative has changed little since 1985. At that time, about twice as many said the press was liberal than conservative (40% vs. 19%). That continues to be the case today (50% vs. 22%), although somewhat more people offer an opinion about this issue than did so then.

Continue reading the full report at people-press.org.

Pew Study Shows Gen Y Detached From Economic Reality

Despite the economic reality of an impending U.S. financial collapse, 76% of young adults between the ages 18 to 29 believe their personal financial situation will improve over the course of the next year, according to a recent Pew Research study. Adults under age 30 are more likely than those ages 30-64 to say they are very confident about getting through retirement with ease.

This overly optimistic attitude prevails even as four-in-ten between the ages 18 to 29 have cut back spending on alcohol or cigarettes, and a third report having changed to a less expensive cell phone plan or cancelled their service altogether. In Britain, the unemployment rate among adults ages 18 to 24 is 20% and climbing.

Additionally, the Pew study says one-in-five young adults in this age group have either moved in with a friend or relative or have had a friend or relative move in with them because of the recession. If the figures in this study are even close to being correct, Generation Y has a big surprise coming to them.

Many young adults have demonstrated remarkable independence and resourcefulness during this recession. USA Today sites an increase in sign ups for the entrepreneurial programs offered by youth-oriented groups such as Junior Achievement and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

"Kids are actively considering starting their own businesses," says Junior Achievement USA President Jack Kosakowski. "It might be out of necessity, since there aren't a lot of jobs out there. But they're also seeing parents and other adults that have been loyal to companies for years ... getting laid off, so these kids might be thinking, 'Hey, I might be better off being my own boss.' "

But the long slide down to nowhere is just beginning, and this pierced tongued, tattoo generation will be hit the hardest. Worth noting is almost all of the "Y"ers I've worked with are extremely intelligent and have an unusually heightened sense of awareness -- but their keen perceptions are soulless and efficiency driven. It's almost as if they have a secretly shared, collective mantra inspired by corporate dogma: the 21st century God. As Kunstler says, the tattoos are a sign of how deeply insecure we are as a nation, and a form of "non-conformist-just-like-you' consumerism".

I look on with much curiosity to see how the most consumer worshipping generation on Earth yet will react to the inability to consume. Will they rise to the occasion as some of their brethren have, or turn to stone -- shiny lifeless pebbles only to be used as fodder for the next world dictator. We'll find out when Apple sales go south.