The legislative origins and historical trends of retirement: How eight major financial and social factors indicate its future direction

Most Americans have a fundamental belief that, on reaching a certain age, they are entitled to retire and live comfortably thereafter. Unfortunately, today this dream is rapidly vanishing. As a majority of Americans grow older, they are quickly realizing that their past financial attitudes, behaviors, and practices have left them on the brink of economic disaster. This dissertation analyzes the social and financial factors facing America's retiring workforce; it focuses on the nation's aging population, the decline in private pension contributions and overall underfunding, the inadequacy of private savings, the potential insolvency of the Social Security system, the high rate of divorce that divides single-wage-earner retirement income into dual-household incomes, the volatile investment market, the lack of financial planning, the rising cost-of-living, the difficulty of making the transition from an accustomed life-style, and the unprecedented hunger for consumption. It concludes with a retirement model that indicates how each social and financial factor affects America's retiring workforce.