Doomed By Debt

I am a sucker for a good infographic. Here is one for the problem of sovereign debt.

 

This is only the debt of the national governments. No personal or corporate debt is included. Also the imputed and unstated debt of the various governmental pensions and senior medical retirement programs like Medicare. 

How much does the average person have in retirement savings? 

Just how much has the average American family saved up? According to the EPI, the mean retirement savings of all families is $95,776.

But that number doesn't tell the whole story. Since so many families have zero savings and since super-savers can pull up the average, the median savings, or those at the 50th percentile, may be a better gauge. The median for all families in the US is just $5,000, and the median for families with some savings is $60,000.

Note that this is the savings for each family. This means that once you include the national debt the net savings rate is zero because most families have more than one member. 

I am not sure that any president, even St. Trump, can really do much about the lack of savings and high debt level. No one is even talking about the unfunded liabilities.