The Majority of Americans Can’t Afford to Retire

Photo credit: Kevin Dooley, CC BY 2.0.

If you didn’t read the Washington Post’s “The New Reality of Old Age in America” this weekend, I’m going to recommend it for this afternoon:

“There is no part of the country where the majority of middle-class older workers have adequate retirement savings to maintain their standard of living in their retirement,” said Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist who specializes in retirement security. “People are coming into retirement with a lot more anxiety and a lot less buying power.”

As a result, many older workers are hitting the road as work campers — also called “workampers” — those who shed costly lifestyles, purchase RVs and travel the nation picking up seasonal jobs that typically offer hourly wages and few or no benefits.

The Washington Post notes that some of these retirees are getting jobs as part of Amazon’s “CamperForce” (a sentence immediately followed by the disclaimer that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post), and when you visit the CamperForce website, well…

The Amazon CamperForce program brings together a community of enthusiastic RV’ers who help make the holidays bright for customers of Amazon.com. As a CamperForce Associate, you’ll begin this seasonal assignment in early Fall and work until December 23rd.

The program lasts 3-4 months in the winter, and your responsibilities will be in the areas of picking, packing, stowing, and receiving.

“Help make the holidays bright” is one way to look at it.

Here’s another way:

These three headlines together pic.twitter.com/jWDl6zc4Ae

— Will Stancil (@whstancil) September 29, 2017

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