Yes, the upcoming generations are really behind the eight ball. Not only do they have to contend with a terrible job market, crushing student debt but also with some pretty inflated asset prices that will keep them out of the supposed "good inflation" the Fed and its minions always like to take credit for.
Oh yeah, the tea party will abolish social security!! That was a dumbest post I have read here. I could buy that what you get as Social Security will not buy you much but that's not what you said....
I don't believe that the current generation of retirees will lose their pensions, but those pensions will certainly buy less then the retirees had anticipated. Greed is a basic part of human nature, perhaps it is more under control in some generations than in others, and certainly it is not present to the same extent in every individual, but it is always there. Some are able to recognize it in themselves and control their impulses. The structure of government in the United States, and in particular its defective Constitution, will make it impossible for that country to fix itself; though the problems, and the solutions to those problems, will be easily recognized. The Country will disintegrate rapidly at first, and then continue in the same direction very slowly over generations until it buries itself in a morass of laws and regulations. It would seem the most likely destination would be a police state. After that would come revolution, not unlike what we see in the Middle East today. In the meantime you'll likely be fine. "History doesn't repeat, but if often rhymes." -- Mark Twain
The way pension funds are structured would indicate that many will lose pensions. When the great depression happened that is what happened. Like you said history doesn't repeat it rhymes.
If people cannot pay their debts they will not be able to provide a return on private pensions. Corporate pensions are based on mainly government bonds and stocks. This is something that will fail. You will be surprised how it will work. The way pension and insurance funds are structured would indicate that there is a strong likelihood they could collapse. It has happened in the past and the government has had to bail them out. The government side of the debate is also problematic the government cannot help failed private sector pensions anymore they have too much debt already. Any obligation on the governments part will disapear or deminish in value due to currency debasement.
The future of the middle class? Go read 1984. The author knew a bit about history, and, from what I can tell, wrote a fictional account of America's future based on patterns he saw in the past mixed with the uniqueness of our own culture. Of course, it didn't all happen by 1984, but his description sounds similar to the fate of the middle class in the French Revolution. Here's my takeaway... The poor will always remain poor. The middle class will try to become upper class by replacing complacent upper class. They will get the poor to support them by promising reformation (though they will not follow through). Some middle class will succeed and become the new rich, some will not even try (and become poor). Some of the upper class will get displaced by the middle class, and a much smaller number will adapt. During the process the middle class will appear to have vanished, and, in the end, it will re-emerge, but made up of a different set of people; some of which fell from the upper class, and others which returned to middle class after falling to poverty.