My sis found this on FB: "Now that the Dow is at an all time high ...

[HiPointDem]

4. everybody doesn't have a pension fund, graham. in fact, most people don't.

Digby catches some of the talking heads saying that we’re all dependent on the stock market for our retirement. Which leads to the question, what do you mean “we”, rich man?

From here, sources of income among the second quartile of older Americans, that is, from the 50th to the 75th percentile:



Even in this group — which is above median, although not at the top — Social Security accounts for more than half of income. (It’s the great bulk of income among poorer retirees). Asset income is, by comparison, trivial.

OK, a couple of caveats. Pensions will presumably be a smaller share of income in future, because defined-benefit plans have given way to defined-contribution. Also, this only tracks income; to the extent that seniors live by drawing down assets, that isn’t shown.

Still, the idea that the typical American’s retirement basically depends on the stock market is utterly wrong; that’s only true for a small elite.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/how-the-other-75-percent-lives/