You will be lucky if you can work until you die. The unlucky ones will wither and starve in damp cardboard boxes under a bridge down by the river. The concept of retirement is a fantasy perpetuated by anyone who longs for the post WWII era (1945-1970) of massive, seemingly pyramid scheme level economic growth made possible by high taxes, big government spending, incredible volumes of domestic manufacturing, and huge population growth.
Generation X (Douglas Coupland's Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, not MTV's or ESPN's X generation), born in the late 60s through~1980, is the first generation to make less than their parents and it only gets worse from there. Globalization piles on the misery because there is nothing a corporation, city, or state can do to keep $20/hr manufacturing jobs in the US when they can easily be exported to Mexico for $1.50/hr or China for $1.50/day.