The future is here and it is called “the future of work”. For decades the United States economy has relied on the growth of the middle class to counterbalance the loss of manufacturing industry. As manufacturing has declined the job market has followed. In the past forty years we have seen a steady decline in real wages for most workers in the United States. The baby boomers’ generation is entering their retirement years and this decline in salaries is directly affecting how we as a nation spend our money.
Baby boomers grew up during the Post-World War II baby boom and most of them were able to send their children to college and secure a good job. Those days are gone and the working class that brought the country into existence is now faced with an aging population that is paying the expenses without doing much for their own economy. This means that we as a country are now dependent on Social Security Disability Insurance to pay the bills when these working age citizens decide that they simply can not pay their bills. That dependency is now threatening the financial security of the American people.
That’s not good. For starters it means that the government is doing more welfare for the poor while it is leaving the middle class to fend for itself. That’s not good economically or logically speaking. That’s why it is time for middle class people to get serious about saving their own money for their future and the future of America. If you are a twenty something today looking ahead to your fifties and sixties, start thinking seriously about your retirement years and the money you will have to keep those funds in tact.