How Will Seniors Be Able to Retire, and Live?

Ezra Klein has a really great piece up today explaining how we aren’t having a very productive conversation about retirement security.

Money quote:

Social Security, after all, is not a minor part of most retirement incomes. For more than 20 percent of couples and 40 percent of individuals, it provides more than 90 percent of their retirement income. We can take some of those costs off the government’s books, but then we need at least a theory for how seniors would make up the shortfall.

The best-case outcome is that they’ll work longer, contributing more to the economy. But that’s not always possible. Age discrimination is rampant. Employers know that younger workers are often more productive, and always cheaper, so they push out older workers or refuse to hire them. And once unemployed, it’s particularly hard for older workers to find new jobs. It’s something that’s become all too clear in the current recession, which has seen a startling rise in long-term unemployment among older workers.

What do you think?