Racial and Income Inequality Run Rampant in How We Plan for Our Futures

Here’s the shocking statistic to lay on you right at the top:

“100 CEOs have more in retirement savings that 41% of Americans combined.”

In layman’s terms, we need to get our 401(k)s and Roth IRAs in order STAT, or else -- quite frankly -- the We of the Future are all fucked.

According to the report from the Center for Effective Government and the Institute for Policy Studies, those 100 CEOs have $4.6 billion in retirement accounts, while the other 41% of us -- that’s 116 million Americans -- are sitting on nest eggs less than that total.

To break it down further, that’s less than $40 per person set aside for our golden years. $40! That won’t even cover a trip to the Sizzler for surf and turf if you were planning on bringing the missus along.

And what’s more shocking about this report is the disparity between white old dude’s sacks of cash and everyone else’s…

Even more than the overall disparity, what caught my eye was the race and gender inequality, both at a CEO level and in the general population. The CEOs with the 10 largest retirement funds were all white men, and their retirement assets dwarfed those of the top 10 CEOs who were women or people of color. (Two women are counted in both of the latter groups: Indra Nooyi of Pepsi, and Ursula Burns of Xerox.)

And the majority of people of color and female heads of household have no retirement assets. Without a pension, IRA, or 401(k) account, these individuals will be completely dependent on Social Security when they do retire—and the average Social Security benefit is $1,223 per month.

So, I suppose we all just work ourselves into an early grave, so we don’t have to ever worry about retiring, right? Or maybe it’s time for that political revolution that stops this gross trend of income inequality and rampant greed that has split our country between the Haves and Have Nots.

No one -- and I truly mean NO ONE -- can spend $46 million in the ten or so years that the average man spends retired. Let’s see that money go to a better cause like rebuilding our middle class, fixing our infrastructure, creating renewable energy sources and jobs, giving to charity, etc. etc. etc.

Greed isn’t good, Gordon Gekko. It’s a disease, and it causes more statistics like these.


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The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ora Media, LLC its affiliates, or its employees.

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