The system is rigged for poor to stay poor. One simple example:
There are tens of millions on Social Security. The cost of living raises are given as percentage of current benefits.
So, those getting $2400/month get 3 times bigger raise compared to those getting $800/month. So I get 3 times the raise money compared to my mother-in-law who never earned big paychecks.
As a first gen. immigrant from a commie country, who didn't speak the language, I call BS!
pretty much if you are retired, you are stuck in your position. Unless you get lucking in investments, or have a relative die and leave you a pile of money, you no longer have the ability to change your lot in life.
I imagine eventually Social Security will be changed to be a fixed sum of money regardless of what you made during your life. The current system is set up like a contribution program, you get back a portion of what you put in based on your contributions — except poor people get back more than they put in after inflation, while rich people get back less than they put in.
But converting it to a straight “minimum retirement program” will be hard to reject, now that we are increasingly socialistic anyway.
On the other hand, for people in their earnings periods, your statement is false. As I note, in one study from 2001 to 2007, 44% of the poorest people moved into one of the higher income brackets, while 38% of the richest people moved DOWN into one of the lower brackets.