re: Nearly Half of All US Families Have Zero Retirement Savings

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They do not have access to investing tools such as an S&P 500 index

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this is a lie

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and year over year SS growth greatly underperforms the index.

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and making a universal version of SS will magically avoid this issue

and SS pays more than UBI will and exists for retired people. you still haven't said why UBI is applicable to your "retirement" OP

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They do not have access to investing tools such as an S&P 500 index and year over year SS growth greatly underperforms the index

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In what world do they not have access to this?

Fun snippets for thought:
Average price of a pack of cigarettes in LA is $5.44 source.
Cost of 365 packs: $1985.60. While I understand savings of $150 monthly aren't feasible for a fair amount of people, it is still, I believe, a very reasonable amount based on the number of people who do smoke a pack per day in very low income brackets.


S&P 500, which every single person who puts away $5/d (and even less) has access to, has returned relative to 2015:
~11% over 30 years
9.85% over 20
7.67% over 10 (2005-2015)
And roughly 15, 20, and 13% over 5,3,1 which indicates the 10-year is on the upswing rather than staying down under 7.
But let's take the 10-year low and pretend that's what you get over 35 years because a 30-year old quit smoking and put his pack per day habit into an IRA:
The 35 year savings become a $265000 simple or $250,000ish Roth IRA at the age of 65.

If the same person is lucky enough to get a 10% ROI over the same time (somewhere between the 20 and 30 year above returns), it's more like $536000/428000.


The simple cost of investing cigarette money into a retirement account is worth a lot in the long run. And even that little amount of money gains you access to the things you suggested weren't available.

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They do not have access to investing tools such as an S&P 500 index

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That and just about any other type of investing information the average person could possibly use is available for free at public libraries along with internet access.