I agree that Americans are focused on the wrong issues. One of my guest bloggers wrote an excellent article on the subject:
A Pension Crisis, Not a Social Security CrisisThere is an impending pension crisis brewing on the horizon, yet the media seems focused on imaginary Social Security problems.
Although the Social Security System will face unprecedented stress as the first of the baby boomers turn 65 in 2010, the system as presently structured can pay at least 30 years (age 95) worth of retirement benefits (through 2040) to those first baby boomers.
Contrast the health of Social Security with the distress of the GM, Delta Airlines and even IBM pension plans. Moreover, take a look at the health of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.
On June 15, 2005, Douglas Holtz-Eakin the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) testified before the US Senate, Budget Committee that:
"Even without taking those prospective <$96 Billion> costs into account, PBGC is already in a deep fiscal hole. At the end of 2004, the agency was reporting a negative net financial position of $23.5 billion."He went on to cite the Congressional Budget Office estimate that PBGC will require "implicit guarantees"
(read bailout from tax dollars) of $46 billion dollars over the next 10 years -- not 2042, but before 2015!
Entire article here: www.brainshrub.com/pension-crisis
When I posted this before on DU, it dropped like a stone. (Just like this thread.) People don't understand how they are being robbed and would rather focus on shooting accidents.