The American retirement crisis is real

Here's what 401(k) apologists miss about the retirement crisis

Struggling through the end.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Mike Blake)

Left-leaning groups and writers have been arguing for years now that America is looking down the barrel of a retirement crisis. The baby boomers are in the process of retiring, and a great many of them are just not ready for it.

But one liberal icon begs to differ. "[T]here's very little evidence for any kind of broad retirement crisis," Kevin Drum of Mother Jones argues, needling this "common view on the left, usually delivered with no evidence." So compiling data, he shows that 401(k)s and other retirement accounts have smoothly replaced traditional pensions, and that future income projections forecast a brighter future for retirees. It was all very interesting — conventional wisdom dispelled! The trouble is, it was also wrong.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.