[wrkronmiller]

> Presumably bond holders are very rich.

I'm not sure that's a safe assumption. These bonds could be held by pension funds etc...

If I am a blue-collar worker nearing retirement, and I find out my pension plan just imploded, it's definitely going to impact my spending negatively.

[webninja]

87% of Americans do not have pensions. [1]

The median savings for American families whose wage earners are between 56 and 61, is $17,000. [1]

34% of American adults have zero savings (retirement + non-retirement). [1]

Anecdotally, I had a Grandpa with a $60k/yr pension and he was definitely upper class.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/13/heres-how-many-americans-hav...

[Ambele]

Those statistics are crazy. I'm not sure how the world still functions.

[kgwgk]

> 87% of Americans do not have pensions.

By “pensions” do you mean defined benefit plans only?

[webninja]

See above citation around where it says 13% of Americans have a pension. Feel free to counter with a separate citation.

[kgwgk]

If you follow the link in the (misleading, in my opinion) “Given that less than 13 percent of Americans have pensions” quote, it says that

“In 1980, more than 148,000 DB plans covered 30 million active workers (38% of the workforce), but by 2008 just over 48,000 DB plans covered 18.9 million American active workers (13% of the workforce). Over the same period, the number of DC plans increased from 340,850 to 669,156 with an increase in active workers covered from 14 million (14% of the workforce) in 1980 to more than 67 million (46% of the workforce) in 2008.”