Bernie Sanders warns millions of Americans have ‘no retirement savings at all’
The progressive policymaker is sounding the alarm that many people are unprepared for their retirement.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has issued a warning that millions of Americans have “no retirement savings at all”.
This comes following a report published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) which highlighted the gap in retirement savings between middle and high-income earners has doubled from 2007 to 2019.
Someone in 10 low-income workers between the ages of 51 and 64 had any retirement savings in 2019.
This represents a stark drop compared to the one in five low-income workers who had money saved for leaving the workforce 12 years earlier.
Nearly seven in 10 Americans currently have plans to retire but of those who do not think they will be able to, 42 percent believe they will not have the savings left to do so.
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According to the GAO, this change is due to widening income inequality and a tax system that is designed to benefit the savings of the US’ wealthiest.
This study looked at data from many sources, including the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
It came to the conclusion that low-income workers had median earnings of about $19,100 a year, while high-income workers reported median earnings of $282,000.
Senator Sanders, who commissioned the report in 2020, broke down what is at stake for seniors.
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He explained: “At a time when half of older Americans have no retirement savings at all, it is unacceptable that taxpayers are forced to spend billions of dollars subsidizing the retirement accounts of the wealthiest people in America.
“The same Republican politicians who support cutting Social Security have no problem providing massive tax breaks to subsidize the retirement accounts of the top one percent. In America today, 55 percent of seniors are trying to survive on less than $25,000 a year.
“Given that reality, our job is to make sure that the working class in our country are able to retire with the dignity and the respect that they deserve, not to provide more tax breaks to the billionaire class.”
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the Chairman of the Committee on the Budget, added: “After a lifetime of work, all Americans should be able to retire with dignity. But today, millions of Americans are retiring with no savings.
“Our rigged tax code is subsidizing the retirement of billionaires and leaving everyone else to foot the bill.
“As a result, wealthy households have nine times more saved than the average middle-class household, and just 10 percent of the lowest-income families have anything saved at all.
“Auto-enrollment in workplace retirement accounts would reduce the access gap and make it easier to save, but we must also protect Social Security for all and ensure the wealthy pay their fair share so that all can retire with financial security.”
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