If people haven't provided for their own retirement, who's fault is that?
You should be aware that there are two crops of retiree: those that have retired previously to approximately the early/mid ~~1990s (the old retirement plan regime in North America), and the other group are those that have retired more recently and will be retiring in the near future (the new retirement plan regime).
In the first group, reside those retirees that had long-term defined plans with an employer that oft kept their employees *for life*. This group was able to amass sizable retirement resources with interest rates at 8% to 15%, and were able to rely on a predictably steady investment market system. The problem however in latter times for this group is:
the financial melt-down and real property value collapse, and the stability of their annuities and the financial institutions that are behind said annuities: I'm not sure that these institutions will be able to weather the on-going and future financial catastrophe brewing (read: you may not have ANY annuity payout in your retirement as this financial catastrophe moves into the next phase!). So much for all your past "retirement provisioning".
In the second group, those unlucky individuals that are living at the wrong time in history (poor to no defined retirement plans; chronic staccato employment; no more life-long guarantee of employment with ANY employer; etc; etc), the onus is on this cohort to sock away a sizable ratio of their income, all in times of: catastrophic market investment conditions; a whopping 1 and 2% return on safe vehicles; increasing property taxes; chronic job hopping; no or little defined plan with no opportunity to take advantage of amassing a sufficient retirement nest-egg from long-term single employee/employer relationship. The other issue that this latter cohort should be aware of is the high expense ratios on the fee funds that perhaps 90%+ employees are invested in today: virtually 99.999999% of this cohort aren't aware that fee funds are taking appx 60% of their retirement nest-egg ! This is an outrageous situation, and is thoroughly covered in the investigative report done recently by Frontline (PBS), in the documentary
The Retirement gamble,
here--> I
hope the above and the investigative documentary puts some perspective into retirement for you?
Silver-