What Is This Market You Speak Of?

by digby

Reacting to my post from yesterday about Matthews and Brownstein talking about how we are all thrilled the stock market’s going up because our retirement income’s invested in equities, Krugman says:

what do you mean “we”, rich man? From here, sources of income among the second quartile of older Americans, that is, from the 50th to the 75th percentile:

Even in this group — which is above median, although not at the top — Social Security accounts for more than half of income. (It’s the great bulk of income among poorer retirees). Asset income is, by comparison, trivial. read on…

None of that is to say that people shouldn’t be saving more and if they’re saving for retirement, they need some growth and the market is one place to get it. But unfortunately, most people are still not saving, mostly for reasons beyond their control (like lack of money) so they will likely be just as dependent on social security as the current crop of retirees.

And I don’t think we baby boomers are going to be quiet about being poor. Just saying …

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