Retirement Crisis Coming: Mom and Dad will have to move in with their kids

http://www.alternet.org/books/americas-retirement-security-crisis-huge-and-quickly-approaching?page=0%2C1&akid=12627.294211.3ESHcB&rd=1&src=newsletter1029485&t=25

Unfortunately, fewer and fewer workers today feel confident in that ability. While no one thinks that a return to poorhouses and the mass insecurity in old age that preceded Social Security is around the corner, working-age Americans are increasingly worried about their ability to maintain their standards of living in retirement. Allianz Life Insurance Company reported, from its 2010 survey of 3,257 people, that “an overwhelming 92%” answered that they absolutely (44%) or somewhat (48%) believe that the nation faces a retirement income crisis, with “more than half (54%)” of persons ages 44 to 49 saying they are “totally unprepared” for retirement. In its 2013 retirement confidence survey of 1,003 workers, the Employee Benefit Research  Institute  (EBRI) found  that only “13 percent are very confident they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement,” the lowest ever reported in the twenty-three years of conducting this annual survey.

But recent events and trends render even the more accurate pyramid image misleading. Indeed, Peter Brady, an economist with the Investment Company Institute, suggests that “instead of a stool” most Americans “have a pogo stick:  Social Security” to negotiate their retirement years—which goes  a long way in explaining why working Americans are increasingly fearful. Although Social Security is much more stable than a pogo stick, the three-decade- long, billionaire-funded campaign to undermine confidence in the program may make the receipt of benefits feel less secure than it is. Moreover, though vital, the benefits by themselves are very modest.