1 00:00:06,589 --> 00:00:11,469 [narrator] In 2019, {\an8}a social media craze swept the internet: 2 00:00:11,553 --> 00:00:13,513 the age challenge. 3 00:00:15,682 --> 00:00:18,977 People shared photos of their faces decades older, 4 00:00:19,060 --> 00:00:21,354 {\an8}using the aptly titled FaceApp. 5 00:00:22,022 --> 00:00:24,899 Even celebrities hopped on the bandwagon. 6 00:00:24,983 --> 00:00:28,737 {\an8}People were seeing their future in focus for the first time, 7 00:00:28,820 --> 00:00:29,821 {\an8}and they were… 8 00:00:29,904 --> 00:00:31,906 [laughing] My God! 9 00:00:31,990 --> 00:00:34,325 -[narrator] …a little freaked out. -[all groaning] 10 00:00:34,409 --> 00:00:35,785 [laughing] Oh, my God! 11 00:00:35,869 --> 00:00:37,328 Bro, I look insane! 12 00:00:37,412 --> 00:00:40,457 [narrator] Younger people generally don't like to confront the fact 13 00:00:40,540 --> 00:00:42,167 that one day, they'll be old. 14 00:00:43,209 --> 00:00:46,046 The pictures were like meeting a stranger, 15 00:00:46,129 --> 00:00:47,380 and that disconnect? 16 00:00:47,464 --> 00:00:49,966 Researchers have actually measured it. 17 00:00:50,550 --> 00:00:53,219 In one study, people were put in a brain scanner 18 00:00:53,303 --> 00:00:55,472 and asked to think about four things: 19 00:00:56,347 --> 00:00:57,849 themselves today, 20 00:00:57,932 --> 00:00:59,642 a stranger today, 21 00:00:59,726 --> 00:01:02,270 that stranger 10 years in the future, 22 00:01:02,353 --> 00:01:04,939 and themselves 10 years in the future. 23 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:09,235 Their brains lit up when they thought about their present-day selves, 24 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:12,238 a lot less so when they thought about the stranger. 25 00:01:12,322 --> 00:01:16,034 And our brains didn't care much for our future selves, either. 26 00:01:16,117 --> 00:01:20,205 I'm Hal Hershfield, I'm a professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management. 27 00:01:20,288 --> 00:01:22,582 [narrator] He was the lead researcher on that study. 28 00:01:22,665 --> 00:01:27,754 Psychologically, people don't identify with who they'll be in the distant future. 29 00:01:27,837 --> 00:01:32,258 That future person seems like a-- like a stranger to them, almost. 30 00:01:32,342 --> 00:01:36,137 [narrator] And so Hal started researching something he never thought he would, 31 00:01:36,721 --> 00:01:38,223 retirement savings. 32 00:01:38,306 --> 00:01:41,017 I'd sort of said, "That sounds incredibly boring." 33 00:01:41,101 --> 00:01:45,688 But then that sort of led me to start digging in and thinking about, you know, 34 00:01:45,772 --> 00:01:49,609 what are the things that stop people from making the decisions 35 00:01:49,692 --> 00:01:51,736 over the long run that could really help them? 36 00:01:51,820 --> 00:01:54,656 [narrator] If you look at the numbers around the world, 37 00:01:54,739 --> 00:01:59,077 we haven't made the types of decisions that look out for our future selves. 38 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:00,829 In most wealthy countries, 39 00:02:00,912 --> 00:02:04,624 the average 65-year-old has saved enough to keep their current quality of life 40 00:02:04,707 --> 00:02:06,626 until their early 70s, 41 00:02:06,709 --> 00:02:11,339 but they're expected to live until their mid-80s or longer. 42 00:02:11,422 --> 00:02:15,426 That translates to trillions of dollars in missing savings. 43 00:02:15,927 --> 00:02:20,932 And by the time Millennials retire, it's expected to be a lot bigger. 44 00:02:21,015 --> 00:02:25,603 In the US, over $100 trillion bigger. 45 00:02:27,522 --> 00:02:32,193 Most people will not be able to maintain their standard of living into retirement. 46 00:02:32,277 --> 00:02:36,114 Many people will sink from a middle-class life 47 00:02:36,197 --> 00:02:39,909 to a near-poverty experience into retirement. 48 00:02:39,993 --> 00:02:42,203 {\an8}I feel pretty horrible, to be honest with you. 49 00:02:42,287 --> 00:02:44,914 {\an8}[speaking Spanish] I haven't had the chance 50 00:02:44,998 --> 00:02:48,168 {\an8}to save for my retirement. 51 00:02:48,251 --> 00:02:52,005 {\an8}It's really tough to be sure whether what I'm doing right now is enough or not. 52 00:02:52,088 --> 00:02:53,464 {\an8}I'm very frightened. 53 00:02:53,548 --> 00:02:57,260 {\an8}We really have a crisis on our hands. 54 00:02:57,343 --> 00:03:00,388 [narrator] Experts suggest that to retire comfortably, 55 00:03:00,471 --> 00:03:04,601 a middle-class American should save at least $1,000,000. 56 00:03:05,143 --> 00:03:07,478 If that sounds wildly out of reach, 57 00:03:08,062 --> 00:03:09,147 you're not alone. 58 00:03:09,856 --> 00:03:13,985 In the US, a quarter of the workforce doesn't have any retirement savings. 59 00:03:15,028 --> 00:03:17,280 We might dream that in our golden years, 60 00:03:17,363 --> 00:03:18,948 we can kick back and relax, 61 00:03:19,032 --> 00:03:20,992 but what's the reality? 62 00:03:21,993 --> 00:03:24,287 Can we even afford to retire at all? 63 00:03:25,330 --> 00:03:28,166 [man] Thanks to the advancements of medical science, 64 00:03:28,666 --> 00:03:31,878 men and women in the autumn of life enjoy better health 65 00:03:31,961 --> 00:03:33,963 and can expect to live longer. 66 00:03:34,422 --> 00:03:38,635 Ninety-two percent of Americans are not meeting their retirement savings target. 67 00:03:38,718 --> 00:03:40,845 We have to work to do more to ensure 68 00:03:40,929 --> 00:03:42,722 that every older American has 69 00:03:42,805 --> 00:03:45,642 the resources and the support they need to thrive. 70 00:03:46,643 --> 00:03:51,439 [woman] Price of food's gone up, price of where you live's gone up. 71 00:03:51,522 --> 00:03:53,691 Where are you gonna get the money to live on? 72 00:03:59,489 --> 00:04:01,741 [film reel clicking] 73 00:04:01,824 --> 00:04:05,578 [narrator] In 1933, America was in the grips of the Great Depression. 74 00:04:07,038 --> 00:04:09,999 Almost a quarter of workers didn't have a job, 75 00:04:10,083 --> 00:04:12,669 and half of the country's seniors were living in poverty. 76 00:04:13,419 --> 00:04:17,924 Like never before, the country's miseries spilled out onto the streets. 77 00:04:18,925 --> 00:04:22,136 That's what Dr. Francis Townsend saw one morning 78 00:04:22,220 --> 00:04:24,973 as he looked out his window in Long Beach, California. 79 00:04:26,140 --> 00:04:29,936 And the view moved him to draft a radical proposal, 80 00:04:30,019 --> 00:04:32,981 a plan to eradicate old age poverty. 81 00:04:34,023 --> 00:04:37,110 Well, Earl, now that you've thought it over and studied my figures, 82 00:04:37,193 --> 00:04:38,152 what do you think? 83 00:04:38,236 --> 00:04:41,864 We'll call it the… the Townsend Plan, what do you say? 84 00:04:42,573 --> 00:04:43,658 Fine. 85 00:04:44,534 --> 00:04:47,036 [narrator] Townsend thought every American over 60 86 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:51,165 should have a guaranteed income from the government of $200 a month, 87 00:04:51,249 --> 00:04:53,668 which would be around $4,000 today. 88 00:04:54,377 --> 00:04:56,713 Townsend went on the road, spreading the good word 89 00:04:56,796 --> 00:04:59,382 that everyone had the right to retire. 90 00:04:59,465 --> 00:05:03,761 You see, back then, for many people the retirement system was… 91 00:05:03,845 --> 00:05:05,013 You worked 'til you died. 92 00:05:06,973 --> 00:05:09,100 [narrator] {\an8}Some lucky people had pensions, 93 00:05:09,183 --> 00:05:11,269 {\an8}but that depended on your job. 94 00:05:11,352 --> 00:05:13,479 The idea of a pension is pretty simple. 95 00:05:13,563 --> 00:05:15,815 In exchange for your loyalty and service, 96 00:05:15,898 --> 00:05:18,109 your employer would support you financially 97 00:05:18,192 --> 00:05:20,528 from the day you retire until the day you die. 98 00:05:21,237 --> 00:05:23,573 First, they were offered to the military, 99 00:05:23,656 --> 00:05:25,658 and later in a variety of other Industries. 100 00:05:26,826 --> 00:05:30,288 If you think of our modern-day retirement system as a stool, 101 00:05:30,371 --> 00:05:32,498 pensions were the first leg. 102 00:05:32,582 --> 00:05:35,126 But since most people didn't have access to them, 103 00:05:35,209 --> 00:05:36,794 Townsend's plan took off. 104 00:05:36,878 --> 00:05:41,341 Within two years, 7,000 Townsend Clubs had popped up across the nation, 105 00:05:41,424 --> 00:05:44,052 with 1.5 million members. 106 00:05:44,135 --> 00:05:46,387 It was a whole movement, 107 00:05:46,471 --> 00:05:49,390 and it pushed the president to sign into law 108 00:05:49,474 --> 00:05:53,311 the most sweeping social reform in American history. 109 00:05:54,228 --> 00:05:57,523 This social security measure 110 00:05:57,607 --> 00:06:02,695 gives at least some protection to millions of our citizens. 111 00:06:02,779 --> 00:06:07,325 [narrator] Basically everyone who makes a paycheck now pays into Social Security. 112 00:06:07,408 --> 00:06:09,786 You're literally paying it forward, 113 00:06:09,869 --> 00:06:11,579 and when you go to retire, 114 00:06:11,662 --> 00:06:15,208 you can expect the current workforce to do the same for you. 115 00:06:15,792 --> 00:06:18,836 This is the second pillar of the retirement system. 116 00:06:19,420 --> 00:06:22,423 And at the time, it redefined the role of government, 117 00:06:22,507 --> 00:06:24,884 as a safety net for its citizens. 118 00:06:25,802 --> 00:06:28,388 But it definitely wasn't Townsend's plan. 119 00:06:28,471 --> 00:06:31,057 Everyone wasn't going to get 4K a month. 120 00:06:31,140 --> 00:06:35,228 The Social Security system replaces on average 121 00:06:35,311 --> 00:06:38,689 about 40% of your pre-retirement earnings. 122 00:06:38,773 --> 00:06:43,569 [narrator] If you make the average salary, which is around 4,000 a month, 123 00:06:43,653 --> 00:06:47,782 you can expect Social Security to pay you something like 1,500 a month. 124 00:06:47,865 --> 00:06:51,869 Social Security is only going to get you so far in retirement. 125 00:06:51,953 --> 00:06:53,913 [narrator] Even paying out that much 126 00:06:53,996 --> 00:06:56,833 takes up almost a quarter of the federal budget. 127 00:06:57,375 --> 00:06:59,001 There's no way around it. 128 00:06:59,085 --> 00:07:00,962 Retirement is expensive. 129 00:07:02,046 --> 00:07:04,132 Which is why there's a third support, 130 00:07:04,215 --> 00:07:06,300 your own personal savings. 131 00:07:07,552 --> 00:07:11,764 This three-legged stool once seated many retirees comfortably, 132 00:07:12,432 --> 00:07:16,144 and a new industry emerged to cater to this new group of people: 133 00:07:17,103 --> 00:07:20,273 retirement communities designed to look like a resort. 134 00:07:21,023 --> 00:07:23,151 {\an8}The first one, Sun City, 135 00:07:23,234 --> 00:07:25,862 boasted a Riviera-sized swimming pool, 136 00:07:26,446 --> 00:07:28,114 social activities, 137 00:07:28,698 --> 00:07:30,408 a cheer team. 138 00:07:30,992 --> 00:07:34,871 Retirement as an idea had only really existed for a few decades 139 00:07:34,954 --> 00:07:38,666 when it got a new brand as a second childhood, 140 00:07:38,749 --> 00:07:40,585 a time of leisure. 141 00:07:41,252 --> 00:07:44,422 This is a vision of retirement many of us grew up with, 142 00:07:45,006 --> 00:07:47,467 even if most people could never afford it. 143 00:07:48,551 --> 00:07:53,681 And then a discovery in 1980 started to shake this system up. 144 00:07:53,764 --> 00:07:55,725 Okay, hey, my name's, uh, Ted Benna. 145 00:07:55,808 --> 00:07:58,853 I'm commonly known as the, uh, father of 401K. 146 00:07:58,936 --> 00:08:03,441 [narrator] In 1980, Ted was working as a benefits consultant in Pennsylvania, 147 00:08:03,524 --> 00:08:06,736 when he stumbled upon a new section of the tax code. 148 00:08:06,819 --> 00:08:10,698 Section 401, paragraph K, 149 00:08:12,033 --> 00:08:15,828 which let employers give cash bonuses to their employees at a later date, 150 00:08:15,912 --> 00:08:17,455 pre-tax. 151 00:08:17,538 --> 00:08:18,998 And Ted realized 152 00:08:19,081 --> 00:08:22,376 that meant employees could give some of their salaries to themselves 153 00:08:22,460 --> 00:08:24,962 at a later date, pre-tax. 154 00:08:25,546 --> 00:08:27,548 To encourage employees to do this, 155 00:08:27,632 --> 00:08:31,177 employers could promise to match some of that money. 156 00:08:31,260 --> 00:08:35,014 He'd invented a whole new kind of retirement account, 157 00:08:35,097 --> 00:08:37,099 the 401K. 158 00:08:37,642 --> 00:08:41,729 But unlike a pension, which guarantees you a certain payout, 159 00:08:41,812 --> 00:08:47,318 with 401Ks, the only thing you can guarantee is what you pay into it. 160 00:08:47,401 --> 00:08:52,156 How you invest it and the stock market affect what comes out the other end. 161 00:08:53,157 --> 00:08:56,452 The 401K system shifted responsibility 162 00:08:56,536 --> 00:08:59,664 from the employer directly to the employee. 163 00:08:59,747 --> 00:09:02,708 [narrator] Many employers ditched their pension plans, 164 00:09:02,792 --> 00:09:05,127 while 401Ks took off. 165 00:09:05,211 --> 00:09:09,215 [Teresa] Basically because workers lost bargaining power in the 1980s, 166 00:09:09,298 --> 00:09:13,135 it grew to be a substitute for good pensions. 167 00:09:13,219 --> 00:09:17,974 [narrator] Today, about half of American workers have access to a 401K. 168 00:09:18,057 --> 00:09:22,937 401K was never intended to be our national retirement system. 169 00:09:23,020 --> 00:09:25,314 [narrator] Otherwise it would've been called something like… 170 00:09:25,398 --> 00:09:27,066 National Retirement System. 171 00:09:27,149 --> 00:09:31,320 401K, actually, is a fluke, legislatively. 172 00:09:31,404 --> 00:09:33,906 [narrator] And there's pretty mainstream consensus, 173 00:09:33,990 --> 00:09:35,658 it hasn't worked out. 174 00:09:35,741 --> 00:09:39,412 {\an8}The 401K has-- has not been a good deal for most Americans. 175 00:09:39,495 --> 00:09:43,457 Most Americans don't have enough saved for their later years. 176 00:09:43,541 --> 00:09:47,753 {\an8}Thirty years later, how are the 401K plans doing? 177 00:09:47,837 --> 00:09:50,965 {\an8}Jill, I think it's time to declare the 401K a failure. 178 00:09:51,048 --> 00:09:52,383 [gasps] 179 00:09:52,466 --> 00:09:55,636 [narrator] The core problem with this 401K-based system 180 00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:59,765 is that it's basically on you to save for your retirement. 181 00:09:59,849 --> 00:10:01,309 {\an8}Do-it-yourself retirement. 182 00:10:01,392 --> 00:10:04,854 [narrator] Which means you have to be financially savvy enough 183 00:10:04,937 --> 00:10:06,939 to grow your own investments, 184 00:10:07,023 --> 00:10:10,735 and also make sure you're not being charged high fees in the background. 185 00:10:11,527 --> 00:10:14,697 We also need to save a lot more money than we used to. 186 00:10:15,531 --> 00:10:18,075 Back in the glory days of the three-legged stool, 187 00:10:18,159 --> 00:10:20,995 retirement was often just five or 10 years. 188 00:10:21,078 --> 00:10:23,664 Now, it can be decades. 189 00:10:23,748 --> 00:10:26,292 That's a lot more years of living to fund. 190 00:10:27,335 --> 00:10:31,714 Ultimately, everyone finds a different way to pay for those extended years of life, 191 00:10:31,797 --> 00:10:34,800 based on the jobs they have, the money they make, 192 00:10:34,884 --> 00:10:36,260 and what they do with it. 193 00:10:37,345 --> 00:10:42,600 But if you're an average person hoping somehow to reach that $1,000,000 goal, 194 00:10:42,683 --> 00:10:45,770 first you'll need an individual retirement account, 195 00:10:45,853 --> 00:10:49,482 and a 401K is just one of many options. 196 00:10:49,982 --> 00:10:52,401 {\an8}I have four different types of retirement accounts. 197 00:10:52,485 --> 00:10:55,529 [woman] There's the 401K, there's a traditional IRA. 198 00:10:55,613 --> 00:10:56,906 {\an8}I have a Roth IRA. 199 00:10:56,989 --> 00:10:58,949 {\an8}Index funds that are equities-heavy. 200 00:10:59,033 --> 00:11:00,868 [Bianca] I have a SEP-IRA. 201 00:11:00,951 --> 00:11:03,746 [woman] An HSA. There's traditional brokerage accounts. 202 00:11:03,829 --> 00:11:07,833 {\an8}The whole concept of how to do it can be really confusing. 203 00:11:08,417 --> 00:11:10,086 [narrator] And overwhelming. 204 00:11:10,628 --> 00:11:12,797 The scoop from financial experts is that 205 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:16,008 if your employer offers a 401K with a match, 206 00:11:16,092 --> 00:11:17,551 you should do that. 207 00:11:18,052 --> 00:11:19,011 But bottom line, 208 00:11:19,095 --> 00:11:23,557 the most important thing is that you save at all, 209 00:11:23,641 --> 00:11:27,436 starting as soon as possible, and ideally automated, 210 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:29,772 so money's put away each week or each month 211 00:11:29,855 --> 00:11:32,066 without you having to think about it. 212 00:11:32,149 --> 00:11:35,236 But deciding to do that for your future self, 213 00:11:35,319 --> 00:11:37,321 that's the hard part. 214 00:11:37,405 --> 00:11:39,115 [Hal] I'm given a choice between 215 00:11:39,198 --> 00:11:41,909 doing something that I want to do right now 216 00:11:41,992 --> 00:11:45,663 or not doing that and making a sacrifice for my future self's benefit. 217 00:11:45,746 --> 00:11:47,206 Well, why should I do that? 218 00:11:47,289 --> 00:11:48,666 That guy is a stranger to me. 219 00:11:48,749 --> 00:11:51,210 I started thinking with my collaborators, 220 00:11:51,293 --> 00:11:54,213 how can we get people to better identify 221 00:11:54,296 --> 00:11:56,799 with who they'll be when they retire? 222 00:11:56,882 --> 00:11:58,426 One of the things we hit on was, 223 00:11:58,509 --> 00:12:04,140 "Well, maybe we can try to make that future self more vivid." 224 00:12:04,223 --> 00:12:07,810 "Can we actually get people to meet their future selves?" 225 00:12:07,893 --> 00:12:10,146 [narrator] So Hal conducted an experiment 226 00:12:10,229 --> 00:12:14,150 where he made old-age 3D avatars of the study participants. 227 00:12:14,734 --> 00:12:19,238 {\an8}This was in 2011. Technology wasn't quite as good as FaceApp then. 228 00:12:19,780 --> 00:12:24,368 We tested to see whether or not being exposed to these age-progressed images 229 00:12:24,452 --> 00:12:27,121 could motivate people to want to save more. 230 00:12:27,204 --> 00:12:28,748 That's exactly what we found. 231 00:12:28,831 --> 00:12:30,124 [narrator] Afterwards, 232 00:12:30,207 --> 00:12:34,211 the study participants wanted to save twice as much for retirement 233 00:12:34,295 --> 00:12:35,671 as a control group did. 234 00:12:35,755 --> 00:12:40,301 The reality is, we make sacrifices for other people we care about all the time. 235 00:12:40,384 --> 00:12:42,511 We make sacrifices for our kids and our parents, 236 00:12:42,595 --> 00:12:45,473 our spouses, because we empathize with them. 237 00:12:45,556 --> 00:12:50,352 And so if we can provoke a sense of empathy for our future selves, 238 00:12:50,436 --> 00:12:53,564 then we may be more willing to make sacrifices today 239 00:12:53,647 --> 00:12:55,357 for their benefit later on. 240 00:12:55,441 --> 00:12:59,028 [narrator] But psychological tricks will only get you so far. 241 00:12:59,111 --> 00:13:04,492 Sixty percent of the American workforce earned less than $50,000 per year. 242 00:13:04,575 --> 00:13:08,370 The average cost of childcare is about $9,000 per year. 243 00:13:08,454 --> 00:13:12,333 If you add food, rent, other utilities, bills, 244 00:13:12,416 --> 00:13:14,084 the numbers just don't add up. 245 00:13:15,461 --> 00:13:19,173 [narrator] And for many people, the numbers have never added up. 246 00:13:19,924 --> 00:13:24,094 Even in the heyday of pensions, most workers never had one. 247 00:13:24,178 --> 00:13:26,889 And when Social Security was first rolled out, 248 00:13:26,972 --> 00:13:30,851 agricultural and domestic workers were excluded from benefits, 249 00:13:30,935 --> 00:13:33,604 jobs that Black people were more likely to have. 250 00:13:33,687 --> 00:13:37,441 And today, many undocumented people are paying into a system 251 00:13:37,525 --> 00:13:39,735 that has no plans to pay them back. 252 00:13:39,819 --> 00:13:43,489 {\an8}[speaking Spanish] I pay my taxes and contribute to Social Security, 253 00:13:43,572 --> 00:13:48,160 {\an8}but because I'm undocumented, I can't reclaim anything. 254 00:13:48,244 --> 00:13:49,954 Over the past 40 years, 255 00:13:50,037 --> 00:13:55,251 where we had the rise of tax-favored, do-it-yourself individual accounts, 256 00:13:55,334 --> 00:13:58,587 that really benefited the top 20% of workers. 257 00:13:58,671 --> 00:14:02,174 [narrator] Because they had the extra money to put into those accounts 258 00:14:02,258 --> 00:14:03,884 and get the tax breaks, 259 00:14:03,968 --> 00:14:05,970 so that money grows even faster. 260 00:14:06,053 --> 00:14:08,097 But poorer people can't. 261 00:14:08,180 --> 00:14:10,558 [Teresa] Because of this do-it-yourself system, 262 00:14:10,641 --> 00:14:14,061 middle-class workers won't be able to keep their standard of living, 263 00:14:14,144 --> 00:14:18,899 and people who are working at low incomes will be quite poor when they retire. 264 00:14:18,983 --> 00:14:22,361 We have millions of people working incredibly hard, 265 00:14:22,444 --> 00:14:24,947 and they still cannot make ends meet. 266 00:14:25,030 --> 00:14:29,535 When I have real tensions between things I need to save for right now, 267 00:14:29,618 --> 00:14:32,955 or spend on right now, versus save for in the future, 268 00:14:33,038 --> 00:14:35,124 it can be understandable when a lot of workers, 269 00:14:35,207 --> 00:14:37,960 especially at the lower end of the income spectrum, 270 00:14:38,043 --> 00:14:40,087 need to spend that money today. 271 00:14:40,170 --> 00:14:43,674 [narrator] And even if you do everything right and save all your life, 272 00:14:43,757 --> 00:14:47,303 you could still find your life savings slashed by a recession, 273 00:14:47,386 --> 00:14:49,263 like we saw in 2008. 274 00:14:49,346 --> 00:14:51,599 This morning's steep declines on Wall Street 275 00:14:51,682 --> 00:14:54,351 hit Americans with already battered 401Ks. 276 00:14:54,435 --> 00:14:58,355 Stock market drops have eroded the value of retirement accounts. 277 00:14:58,439 --> 00:15:02,151 [woman 2] One was 88,000, and then it went down to, like… 278 00:15:04,111 --> 00:15:04,945 50. 279 00:15:05,905 --> 00:15:08,991 I've been a career girl all my life, and I don't deserve this. 280 00:15:09,658 --> 00:15:10,701 [weeping] I'm sorry. 281 00:15:10,784 --> 00:15:11,702 It's all right. 282 00:15:12,328 --> 00:15:13,370 [sighs] 283 00:15:14,330 --> 00:15:17,875 Because we've had this narrative or this belief 284 00:15:17,958 --> 00:15:21,128 that retirement was your own responsibility, 285 00:15:21,211 --> 00:15:27,217 we have, in America, a huge group of people reaching 65 286 00:15:27,301 --> 00:15:30,846 with a deep sense of shame and anxiety. 287 00:15:30,930 --> 00:15:35,059 {\an8}I have to depend on the charities and the organizations 288 00:15:35,142 --> 00:15:37,853 {\an8}that I used to be able to abundantly give to. 289 00:15:37,937 --> 00:15:40,230 {\an8}Do I feel shame and embarrassment? Absolutely. 290 00:15:40,314 --> 00:15:45,569 {\an8}I'm looking into the possibility to return to the workforce 291 00:15:45,653 --> 00:15:49,490 {\an8}so that I can pad my retirement just a little bit more. 292 00:15:49,573 --> 00:15:51,784 {\an8}Because of the setbacks I faced in my life, 293 00:15:51,867 --> 00:15:54,787 {\an8}I see myself working until I'm 70. 294 00:15:54,870 --> 00:15:57,331 [narrator] Some experts think we should be working longer. 295 00:15:57,414 --> 00:15:58,582 It's good for the economy 296 00:15:58,666 --> 00:16:02,461 for the simple reason that it grows the labor force. 297 00:16:02,544 --> 00:16:04,838 {\an8}People should, if they can, be working longer. 298 00:16:04,922 --> 00:16:07,633 {\an8}And the fact that older people are working longer 299 00:16:07,716 --> 00:16:10,260 {\an8}will be good for the economy, boost productivity, 300 00:16:10,344 --> 00:16:11,637 {\an8}make everyone wealthier. 301 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:14,181 I really hate that formulation. 302 00:16:14,264 --> 00:16:19,395 Just because we're all living longer doesn't mean we have to work longer. 303 00:16:19,478 --> 00:16:22,731 At a certain point, people should have the option 304 00:16:22,815 --> 00:16:27,403 to rest and to spend their time doing something else besides working. 305 00:16:27,486 --> 00:16:31,949 And in America today, it's simply not a choice for many people. 306 00:16:33,867 --> 00:16:37,454 [Teresa] The other problem is that we're not all living longer. 307 00:16:37,538 --> 00:16:40,666 We've had such unequal longevity gains 308 00:16:40,749 --> 00:16:45,295 that this whole notion is an insult to most people in America. 309 00:16:45,379 --> 00:16:48,549 [narrator] Most of us will never be able to save a million dollars, 310 00:16:48,632 --> 00:16:50,592 no matter how hard we try. 311 00:16:50,676 --> 00:16:53,929 Our security in old age is the accumulation 312 00:16:54,013 --> 00:16:57,182 of all our privileges and all our hardships. 313 00:16:57,808 --> 00:17:01,895 Student loans, credit card debts, bouts of unemployment, low wages, 314 00:17:01,979 --> 00:17:06,191 medical bills, never owning a home, the inheritance you didn't get… 315 00:17:06,275 --> 00:17:07,359 They stack up. 316 00:17:08,736 --> 00:17:12,197 Almost 100 years ago, a movement swept America. 317 00:17:12,281 --> 00:17:15,117 We declared it a national goal 318 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:21,707 that everybody deserves to reach old age with well-being and security. 319 00:17:21,790 --> 00:17:24,793 We must face the fact that in this country, 320 00:17:24,877 --> 00:17:29,173 we have a rich man's security and a poor man's security, 321 00:17:29,256 --> 00:17:32,551 and that the government owes equal obligations to both. 322 00:17:33,844 --> 00:17:36,472 In the 1980s, when we were experimenting, 323 00:17:36,555 --> 00:17:39,433 or started our experiment with a do-it-yourself system, 324 00:17:39,516 --> 00:17:40,809 the UK did, too. 325 00:17:41,477 --> 00:17:45,189 [narrator] And by 2000, reports like this started to come out. 326 00:17:45,272 --> 00:17:48,484 My state pension is £87.50 a week. 327 00:17:49,026 --> 00:17:52,821 And on that money, I'm supposed to rent accommodation and survive. 328 00:17:52,905 --> 00:17:54,323 [woman 3] I've got a good family. 329 00:17:54,406 --> 00:17:57,451 Mother's Day and Christmas, I have to ask them for clothes. 330 00:17:57,534 --> 00:18:00,329 They reversed course from the American system 331 00:18:00,412 --> 00:18:04,875 and mandated that employers provide a pension system. 332 00:18:04,958 --> 00:18:06,877 And their pension system is called… 333 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:09,713 [narrator] The National Employee Savings Trust, 334 00:18:09,797 --> 00:18:11,090 or NEST. 335 00:18:11,173 --> 00:18:13,467 Which has a wonderful image of a nest egg. 336 00:18:13,550 --> 00:18:15,969 [narrator] It's like a mandatory 401K, 337 00:18:16,053 --> 00:18:19,223 where you're forced to save 8% of your salary, 338 00:18:19,306 --> 00:18:22,601 5% from your paycheck and 3% from your employer. 339 00:18:23,644 --> 00:18:27,272 If you earned a median income of about $49,000 a year, 340 00:18:27,356 --> 00:18:29,733 and invested that much over 40 years, 341 00:18:29,817 --> 00:18:34,154 you'd likely not only hit that million-dollar marker, but exceed it. 342 00:18:34,238 --> 00:18:37,908 We could fix our American system overnight. 343 00:18:37,991 --> 00:18:42,371 We could institute a mandatory savings system for all workers. 344 00:18:43,122 --> 00:18:45,499 [narrator] Or we could expand Social Security. 345 00:18:46,250 --> 00:18:49,253 Remember, it's funded from your paycheck. 346 00:18:49,336 --> 00:18:52,631 Right now, about 6% is taken out to fund it. 347 00:18:52,714 --> 00:18:55,217 But high earners aren't paying Social Security tax 348 00:18:55,300 --> 00:18:57,136 on a lot of the money they make. 349 00:18:57,219 --> 00:19:01,974 Because after you've made $137,900 that year, 350 00:19:02,057 --> 00:19:05,477 they stop taking money out for the rest of the year. 351 00:19:05,561 --> 00:19:07,563 That's known as a regressive tax. 352 00:19:07,646 --> 00:19:11,108 And if you're super rich, you could hit that cap in a week, 353 00:19:11,191 --> 00:19:14,695 or if you're ridiculously rich, a day. 354 00:19:14,778 --> 00:19:18,157 They're still getting over their hangovers from their New Year's Eve party, 355 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:21,410 and they've already paid their taxes to the Social Security system. 356 00:19:21,493 --> 00:19:23,495 [all] Happy New Year! 357 00:19:24,788 --> 00:19:29,751 If we just taxed their earnings like we tax everybody else's earnings, 358 00:19:29,835 --> 00:19:32,504 so much more money would come into the system, 359 00:19:32,588 --> 00:19:35,591 and we could solve poverty and expand benefits. 360 00:19:35,674 --> 00:19:37,926 The retirement savings crisis 361 00:19:38,010 --> 00:19:41,096 is actually a lot easier to fix than most of our problems. 362 00:19:41,180 --> 00:19:43,682 It's easier to fix than climate change. 363 00:19:43,765 --> 00:19:46,518 It's easier to fix than-- than health insurance. 364 00:19:46,602 --> 00:19:50,981 I think we just need to start approaching these questions in a more holistic way. 365 00:19:51,064 --> 00:19:54,651 The question of retirement security doesn't just affect retirees. 366 00:19:54,735 --> 00:19:57,237 It affects everyone in the family. 367 00:19:57,321 --> 00:20:01,742 There has been really amazing innovation in recent years 368 00:20:01,825 --> 00:20:05,162 around what it means to live well as you age. 369 00:20:05,245 --> 00:20:08,290 [narrator] Like this old folks' home in Seattle that made the news 370 00:20:08,373 --> 00:20:11,001 for joining forces with a nearby daycare. 371 00:20:11,084 --> 00:20:13,337 [news anchor] Where the very old and the very young 372 00:20:13,420 --> 00:20:15,297 spend their days together. 373 00:20:15,380 --> 00:20:19,009 I love to hug them and squeeze them and sing songs to them. 374 00:20:19,092 --> 00:20:21,136 I've seen the Village Movement emerge… 375 00:20:21,220 --> 00:20:24,932 [narrator] Which has over 300 registered chapters across the US. 376 00:20:25,515 --> 00:20:28,018 [Ai-Jen Poo] …where older people pool resources 377 00:20:28,101 --> 00:20:31,396 and gets access to services collectively. 378 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:33,857 [narrator] So they can afford to do the things 379 00:20:33,941 --> 00:20:35,609 you'd see at a retirement community 380 00:20:35,692 --> 00:20:37,486 while living in their own homes. 381 00:20:37,569 --> 00:20:42,574 [Ai-Jen] In Hawaii, many communities are living intergenerationally, 382 00:20:42,658 --> 00:20:45,577 where elders are actually culturally revered. 383 00:20:46,245 --> 00:20:50,165 [narrator] Across the US, that kind of family structure was once common, 384 00:20:50,249 --> 00:20:54,044 but right around the time retirement resort communities were taking off, 385 00:20:54,127 --> 00:20:55,629 it started to decline. 386 00:20:56,838 --> 00:20:58,966 We were sold a dream, 387 00:20:59,049 --> 00:21:04,596 but the reality is, a lot of us will need to rely on our families and friends. 388 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:08,558 That's really the fourth leg of this stool, and always has been. 389 00:21:08,642 --> 00:21:13,605 [Ai-Jen] In this country, our attitudes around retirement and aging 390 00:21:13,689 --> 00:21:17,985 have everything to do with the fear of aging and disability, 391 00:21:18,068 --> 00:21:22,322 and the way that we've culturally solved for it is to just be in denial. 392 00:21:22,406 --> 00:21:27,077 It actually reveals a lot of things about our society, 393 00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:30,914 our politics, our culture that we've needed to change for a very long time. 394 00:21:32,416 --> 00:21:36,253 [narrator] While most of us will never live out that sunny version of retirement… 395 00:21:36,336 --> 00:21:39,840 If we solve for the people who've been hardest to solve for, 396 00:21:39,923 --> 00:21:42,801 who've really fallen through the cracks for the longest, 397 00:21:42,884 --> 00:21:46,596 we will secure everyone. 398 00:21:51,435 --> 00:21:53,437 [theme music plays]