It's conventional wisdom to save ~10% for retirement, on top of being taxed (along with your employer) ~15.3%. That's ~25.3% of personal income going to retirem

It's conventional wisdom to save ~10% for retirement, on top of being taxed (along with your employer) ~15.3%. That's ~25.3% of personal income going to retirement. This is inline with most advanced economies. Of that ~6.4% - A LOT of that is healthcare related costs. Considering that healthcare in the US is ~18.2% of GDP - and the vast majority of it comes from retirees - I don't know what you're expecting to see here. Essentially, you're shocked that healthcare in the US is ~18.2% of GDP, and ~75% of that comes from retirees... Social Security spending is ~5% of GDP, and Medicare spending is ~4% of GDP... That's for only ~19% of the population. And it doesn't even cover all of their healthcare costs. If you keep the same ratio for government employees, that comes down to ~2.84% of GDP for healthcare & 3.56% for what most people think of as pensions... And you're looking at ~65% of that spending coming from state & local governments, not the Federal government.