According to the federal reserve, the median net worth of people in retirement age is only ~400k

Remember, that includes home equity

That is shocking to me

like these people at age 60-70 have had it fairly easy in terms of finding good employment, buying a home, etc., back in the day

the stock market has done tremendous returns over the last 50 years

what am i missing, why dont they have money

Not shocking and why everyone working until SS kicks in

Most people do not have money from mom and dad or something passed dow to them. When you remove that from the picture I think it is very conceivable.

It shouldn’t be. As a white person you should be familiar with trailer parks (not the nice ones) and the levels of alcoholism that exists in America (rural and urban)

look on the bright side, median approached the consistently higher mean, and this also accounts for debt that any rational actor would have taken on.

so there's solidarity if maslow's hierarchy doesn't get replenished.

but in terms of education level vs income vs implied relative status, there are two separate realities.

Get rid of social security and privatize it