It's a scary world if you want to live a long life. All three forms of retirement benefits are under attack: Social Security, Medicare and private pension plans. Either they're bombarded by rumors of eventual depletion or undergoing enormous restructuring. 

But the real question isn't whether there's enough money to secure dependable retirement. It's who's taking responsibility for it at the federal and corporate level. 

We heard Social Security will face a $3.7-trillion shortfall within 75 years. But that didn't stop Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan from seizing on an opportunity to further assail the program. 

Missing from his alarm-inducing suggestions of slashing benefits was the fact that the Bush administration's tax cuts, which Greenspan supported, will create a shortfall three times greater over the same period. That math indicates money is available; it's a matter of appropriation.

Today, 47 million Americans receive Social Security. About a third get 90 percent of their income from the program. It's criminal for anyone who doesn't have to rely on this average $900 per month stipend for survival to propose anything less than preserving it by all means possible.

Then there are the health-care lies. Heralded as the pinnacle of Medicare overhaul, last year's Medicare Modernization Act introduced a prescription drug bill, supposedly to afford seniors cheaper drugs. 

But, par for an administration skilled in deceit, it passed under false pretenses. Said Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), "It's outrageous that this administration went out of its way to keep true cost estimates from Congress because they knew the bill wouldn't have passed otherwise." Now, there's a brewing investigation into the hidden $140 billion in costs. 

So what does the bill actually do? It restricts negotiations with drug companies for better prices or group rates on behalf of recipients and subsidizes private insurers up to 20 percent to administer the program. It's blatant corporate welfare.

Also released were reports that Medicare, our second largest social insurance program, is at risk of insolvency. But as Medicare Rights Center Director Diane Archer says, "We can afford Medicare, if we have the political will to pay for it." 

Turning to private pension plans: Corporations have been reducing defined-benefit (pre- specified, guaranteed payout) plans for years. By doing so, they are shifting retirement risk to employees.

Meanwhile, they are weeping for legislation to further decrease responsibility to their retiring workforce. It's as if they'll stop outsourcing to India if only they can minimize their pension expense equations.

The fact remains that companies with under-funded pensions were once over-funded. Yet, instead of surpluses being socked into a reserve fund for retirees, they became obscene CEO payouts. Some CEOs still make more than 1,000 times the average worker's salary. 

In addition to rising health costs and shrinking benefits, middle-income seniors witnessed a 36-percent drop in retirement wealth between 1983 and 1998. These people, who generally had children later in life, are facing skyrocketing tuition costs, often taking financial and physical care of parents and facing their own retirement uncertainty. 

So they borrow to make ends meet, an increasingly expensive endeavor. Banks responded to this desperation by steadily increasing credit-card rates. Meanwhile, they pay almost no interest on things like Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-insured money-market accounts. Greenspan neglected suggesting they change that practice. Banks are offering uninsured mutual funds at uncapped advisory fees as alternative savings vehicles.

There are solutions to securing future retirement.

As Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) proposed, redirecting tax cuts for the rich into a Social Security reserve fund would be one. Instilling a progressive tax that has Bill Gates paying proportionately into the system would be another. We need a Medicare bill that uses pharmaceutical profits to defray consumer costs. And let's be allowed to buy cheaper drugs in Canada. 

Corporations should shoulder more retirement risk. Meanwhile, individuals must increase risk awareness through education and independent financial advice. In the end, more financially secure seniors become consumers instead of debtors. That helps the whole economy.