Baby boomers face retirement squeeze

Even those who criticize Greenspan's comments concede that serious adjustments will be needed both on Capitol Hill and in individual saving and spending patterns to prepare for the spike in baby boomer retirements in the next four years.

"He's right that social security does need to be reformed, but his prescription for cutting benefits for future retirees is inadvisable," says John Rother, policy director for the senior lobby AARP.

"Half of American workers do not have a pension, and most have not saved anything significant for retirement," he adds.

Given the decline of traditional pensions, this is of particular concern. Only 15 percent of working age Americans have an individual retirement account (IRA), and only 22 percent contribute to a 401(k) plan, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Barely 1 in 3 working Americans has saved more than $100,000 for retirement.

Overall, it means that American retirees will have $45 billion less in retirement income in 2030 than they will need to cover basic expenses, according to the EBRI.

For any politician up for reelection in 2004, the prospect of large numbers of angry retirees - who vote at higher levels than other age groups - is unsettling. Social Security reform is an issue rarely engaged during the political cycle.

In 2000, Republican nominee George Bush touched what analysts call the "third rail" of politics when he proposing changes in Social Security. With the stock market still seen as strong, and forecasts for a huge federal surplus, the notion of privatizing a portion Social Security appealed to many voters, especially those who viewed themselves as part of a new "investor class." With IRAs and pensions, some two thirds of voters are directly or indirectly invested in the stock market.

But with the sharp reversals in the stock market after the election and, especially, more recent fears of outsourcing and a jobless recovery, the average American's stock ownership is shrinking.

"We've seen the group of self-identifiers in the investor class drop from 52 percent a year ago to 32 percent, around October and November," says pollster John Zogby of Zogby International.

Curiously, this group stuck through the worst days of the bear market in his poll, but more recent publicity about good, white-collar jobs being shipped overseas has hit this voting group hard. Twenty-one percent say they are afraid of losing their job in the next 12 months, says Mr. Zogby.

"There are still pockets of acceptability for the idea of Social Security reform, but what Greenspan said - that your entitlement is not going to be what you planned - is deadly stuff in politics, especially as the baby boomers get older," he adds.

No one expects Congress or the White House to move on this issue in an election year, but today's discussion could set markers for debate beyond 2004.

"There are going to be a lot of people looking at a bad retirement if they get away with cutting Social Security," says Dean Baker, codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

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