Retirement: A third have less than $1,000 put away

[TBF]

142. I am sorry to hear about your health

difficulties, but happy that you have financial resources.

The thing is that many (the majority) of people in this country do not. I saw it first hand growing up in an area of rural poverty in the 1970s. And honestly when I look back we were fortunate that our dads at least had jobs in factories. High school grads, often Vets at that time (Viet Nam) would return to their small towns and work with unions in the factories. Most bought their own houses, new cars, some were able to save for a trip to Florida once a year.

Now with the service economy and dismal wages there is only a small subset of our economy that is able to do well enough in college and get into a field that pays decently enough to have the "middle class" lifestyle that used to be so coveted in this country.

Your success aside, and I do think your ability to save is wonderful (do you have a family and children? Parents to support?), most are not doing as well.

Here are some charts that illustrate this better than I can describe - that show in stark reality what kind of income inequality we are dealing with in this country:





Much more here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph