Ready to work until you're 80?

In our ever more unequal times, stats that once would have shocked us today often rate no more than a dismissive ho-hum. But pollsters with Wells Fargo last week shared a stat that might bring even the most jaded among us up short.

These pollsters asked a sampling of middle-income Americans how long they expect to have to work before they could afford to retire. Over a third — 34 percent — replied they expect to have to work until they hit age 80!

Last month, interestingly, another poll — from the Washington Post and the Miller Center — asked Americans why the United States now has so few decent jobs. Over three-quarters of those surveyed, a substantial 76 percent, placed blame on the “gap in pay between business executives and ordinary workers.”