Our American society values hard work and assumes lower and middle class workers can retire with confidence. Our Western culture respects the maturity of elders and wishes to provide for them. Our capitalistic economic principles strive to maximize competition and efficiency. Our democratic political system guides politicians to please constituents while making the best policy decisions for the entire country. A true American crisis is one that plunges these ideals into conflict. Because this issue …showed first 75 words of 322 total…

…showed last 75 words of 322 total…individuals in our society don’ t understand the purpose of the stock market or the workings of our economy, but simply assume comfortable retirement is a fact of life. Social values conflict with a lack of economic knowledge. Living in a country still heavily influenced by the “ New Deal” programs, many Americans also assume government should play a role in providing for that stable future. This is not a certainty though, simply a modern paradigm.