As America's 75 million baby boomers approach retirement, the traditional sources of their retirement funds - company pension, tax-advantage savings account, and Social Security - are drying up. Investors have watched their retirement funds disappear as the stock market plunged; some like Enron workers and airline pilots, have had their pensions and savings disappear when their employers slid into bankruptcy. Now there are loud warnings from economists and retiree advocates that the Social Security Trust Fund will be quickly exhausted as the baby boomers start to retire in 2012. However, despite warnings and recommendations, Congress has taken little action to correct the problems.
See "Income shortfalls threaten retirees' futures", Marilyn Geewax, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 28, 2003