I come in contact with the failure of America's retirement system at my local supermarket. That's where a corps of elderly gentlemen bag my groceries. After the bags are piled in the cart, they ask me with slackened faces if I need help to the car. It's always a mildly awkward question. I am far more agile, and we both know it.

Without fail this thought enters my mind: What went wrong for them?

Maybe nothing, and they choose to hoist heavy bags into shopping carts as they round the septuagenarian corner. But the more likely scenario is that whatever jobs they had as younger men didn't offer sufficient retirement benefits.

I fear that their fate is befalling much more of America.  

The Great Recession has gutted retirement accounts, which have lost 26 percent of their peak value. As a direct result, nearly four in 10 Americans over age 62 say they have delayed retirement, according to a new Pew Research survey.

With only about 12 percent of workers between 30 and 39 now enrolled in a defined-benefit pension plan, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, employers are off the hook. They can unilaterally reduce or even eliminate 401(k) contributions.

Which means Americans are on their own. Retirement has become largely a matter of aggressive personal savings and investor savvy. It doesn't matter that most of us are unqualified financial planners; either choose the right risk allocations and timing or hope those bagger jobs are still available.

Source: Robyn Blumner of the St. Petersburg Times