Listening to the continuing rich payouts on Wall Street (even for those who were supposed to be bankrupt, like Lehman) is sickening when you compare that to the millions of retired Americans who have little or no opportunity to recover from this failed economic model. What do we tell them? It's bad enough that younger Americans now have to work more and save more because the Republican system let them down but how can we tell retired Americans "sorry, I guess you lost everything so better luck next time"?
Older Americans with investments are among the hardest hit by the turmoil in the financial markets and have the least opportunity to recover.Note from Joe: Politically, retirees are a key voting bloc -- especially in Florida. They pay attention, very close attention. Latest polling in Florida from NBC/Mason-Dixon shows Obama has moved ahead: 47% - 45%. Of note, "McCain's four-point lead among seniors (48%-44%) is not as big as he needs it to be to offset the electorate-changing demographics among blacks and young voters."
As companies have switched from fixed pensions to 401(k) accounts, retirees risk losing big chunks of their wealth and income in a single day’s trading, as many have in the last month.
“There’s a terrified older population out there,” said Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. “If you’re 45 and the market goes down, it bothers you, but it comes back. But if you’re retired or about to retire, you might have to sell your assets before they have a chance to recover. And people don’t have the luxury of being in bonds because they don’t yield enough for how long we live.”
Today’s retirees have less money in savings, longer life expectancies and greater exposure to market risk than any retirees since World War II. Even before the last week of turmoil, 39 percent of retirees said they expected to outlive their savings, up from 29 percent in 2007, according to a survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, an industry-sponsored group in Washington.
Confirmation of a shift in older voters from Ohio where McCain and Obama are tied, via Political Wire:
Key findings: "As McCain struggled with his response to last week's economic news, his support among segments of the voting population that might seem vulnerable to a weak economy declined... The most distressing news for the McCain camp comes from senior voters and independents. In our last survey McCain enjoyed a more typical 52% to 41% lead among voters age 65 and over. In this latest survey McCain and Obama are even with 46% of the senior vote each."CNN's latest national polling also found movement for Obama with seniors:
Fifty-one percent of registered voters are backing Obama, who now holds a 5 point edge over McCain, at 46 percent. McCain and Obama were tied at 48 percent apiece in the previous CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey. Obama's advantage, while growing, is still within the poll's sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.The economic numbers are going to get any better anytime soon. These polls numbers should continue in the same direction.
Where did Obama make his gains?
"In two core McCain constituencies: Men, who now narrowly favor Obama. And seniors, who have also flipped from McCain to Obama," says CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider.
When including only those people most likely to vote, the results are pretty much the same: Among likely voters, Obama has a 4 point lead, 51 percent to 47 percent.
