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westward comments on Why is it rational to invest in retirement? I don't get it. - Less Wrong Discussion
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The richest country, the United States, does no such thing. Poverty among the elderly is a big problem here. I have two friends in the 70+ region, who are trying to skimp by on around $1000 a month in Social Security + medicare and food stamps. One is currently homeless. Both would like to find a job, but neither is medically able to work any more. And these are people who worked for a long time. Not everyone gets as much from the U.S. government as they do. I have another elderly friend who is selling her apartment in NYC and moving to Iowa to have enough money to live on.
I also have a few more retired elderly friends who are quite well off. This is because they were successful in their careers (some very successful) and saved a lot of money along the way. I can think of one other who's still actively working at a high-paying job.
The goal is to end up like the happy, well-off retired folks and not the ones living out of their cars or on the street.
And $1,000 a month in social security plus food stamps valued at $200 plus Medicare valued at $680, you get pretty close ($1,880) to $2,000 a month from the US Federal government.
I just realized that without knowing the costs of living in USA, these numbers don't mean anything to me. (I made cca $2000 a month in my previous job, and being homeless was never a risk.)
Well, if living abroad is an option, send these poor people to Slovakia, and they will live like... well, not like kings, but perhaps like junior computer programmers.