Fewer Americans Save for Retirement

N E W   Y O R K,  May 23 -- If Americans appear to be not fully sold on theidea of saving for their retirement, the explanation might lie intwo very broad and different possibilities:

1. They feel they can't maintain a modern lifestyle and affordto save.

2. Deep down, they feel that some outside force will take careof the matter and provide the wherewithal when the time comes.

Whichever the reason, fewer workers than a year ago are savingfor retirement, according to a report by two researchorganizations. Moreover, they say, confidence in a futurecomfortable retirement is down.

Fair Degree of Fatalism

Supporting the first possibility is the concern that whateversmall amount workers save could be wiped out by illness or otherforces beyond their control, such as rising prescription andutility bills.

It is a fatalistic attitude, but understandable when youconsider the overwhelming anxiety that grips some families whenthey match their incomes against the demands, such as for tuitionsand mortgage payments.

And perhaps taxes, too. Americans in recent years have beenpaying more in taxes than for food, clothing and shelter, thetraditional essentials. The alternative is to stop saving ratherthan lower living standards.

Worse, they sense that taxes might very well take an ever biggerbite in future years despite loudly sought tax cuts.

The possibility of taxes taking an even larger budget share israised by the Tax Foundation, whose documented but controversialTax Freedom Day, has been pushed back to May 3 this year. It wasApril 18 in 1992.

It means,the Foundation says, that taxpayers must work untilthen simply to meet federal, state and local tax bills. And, itadds, another week will be added to the grind by 2011, the resultof the tax code's built-in tendency to absorb a larger fraction ofthe nation's income.

Will Government Bail Them Out?

While those angry at the tendency have a tendency of their ownto blame an avaricious government, much of the tax growth has, ineffect, been sought or acquiesced to by voters approving moregovernment services.