[TheCoelacanth]

The US has its own nationally administered pension scheme called "Social Security". The problem is that the amount that is pays is so small that anyone who wants to live better than a near-poverty-level lifestyle in retirement needs a private supplement.

[heartbreak]

Well that and it was poorly managed and is currently operating "paycheck to paycheck".

[smacktoward]

1) Even if all payments into the Social Security trust funds stopped today, they'd have enough cash on hand to cover payments for 37 months. (see https://www.socialsecurity.gov/finance/)

2) Assuming tax collections for Social Security remain at the same level they are today, the trust funds won't run out of money until the year 2034. (See https://www.nasi.org/learn/socialsecurity/future-finances)

So there's a gap between what they're collecting and what they're paying out, but "will be a problem 20 years from now" is quite a bit different from "living paycheck to paycheck." And since the Social Security Administration doesn't have control over either the amount of revenue they get or the amount of benefits they pay out -- those decisions are all made by Congress, not SSA -- it's difficult to argue that any of this is their fault.

[heartbreak]

Poor phrasing on my part. I'm not sure projected spending outstripping projected income is any better than being paycheck to paycheck though.

Definitely agree with you that SSA is not at fault here.

[TheCoelacanth]

What if you had predicted years in advance that it would happen and saved up a bunch of money to cover it?