[Ed. – Never mind COVID: If Joe Biden is elected president, all Americans are likely to retire poor.]
How badly is COVID-19 hurting Americans on the cusp of retirement? Maybe worse than we thought.
In an interview, economist Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at The New School in New York City and one of the nation’s leading experts on retirement, told me that half — that’s right, half — of Americans aged 55 and up will retire in poverty or near poverty.
“Our data is showing that, because of the COVID recession, about 50% of workers over the age of 55 will be poor or near-poor adults when they reach 65,” she said.
How poor is that? “A person who’s 65 will be near-poor or poor if they’re living on less than $20,000 a year,” she told me. “I think we could all agree that means chronic deprivation for the rest of your life.”
