Americans have become a little more optimistic about the prospect of getting at least some money from Social Security when they retire, but the numbers still reflect a troubling picture of a system teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.
A new Gallup poll shows that 50 percent of American non-retirees believe that Social Security will pay them a benefit when they retire.
The numbers are an improvement over the prior three readings taken in 2005, 2010, and 2015, when the share of U.S. non-retirees who said they expect to receive a Social Security benefit when they retire was 45 percent, 36 percent, and 45 percent, respectively.
On the flip side, the latest data shows that 47 percent of Americans (who are not yet retired) think that when they finally call it quits, they won’t get a penny from Social Security….