Jarhead
Gold Member
- Jan 11, 2010
- 20,670
- 2,378
How do you feel about retirement? Inevitably the retirement age will be raised. The system just won't support people living off of SS the length of time that modern medicine has created for the elderly. Of course, the cost of that modern medicine is also high, and healthcare costs keep rising each year, but we can all pay for that.
Of course, many will be unable to work because of chronic health problems. I guess all the healthy people can just work harder to pay for the SS disability checks for the unhealthy. I wonder if unemployment will go up because the old folks will need to work until they're 69?
Retirement age at 69? Deficit plan hits Social Security. - CSMonitor.com
The proposals from Simpson and Bowles would be phased in over time; here are the three most important cuts to benefits:
1. Benefits formula: Simpson and Bowles recommend some highly technical changes to the formula used to determine benefits. This is the biggest single change, reducing the Social Security Trust Fund (SSTF) long-term shortfall by 45 percent. These changes would affect the way Social Security averages workers' lifetime earnings to determine benefits.
2. Boost the retirement age. The full benefits retirement age would rise to 68 by 2050, and 69 by 2075. Reform advocates and actuaries argue that we'll all need to work longer due to rising longevity rates. But it's important to understand that boosting Social Security's full retirement age is a lifetime benefit cut for everyone, no matter when you retire. Earlier this year, advocates at Social Security Works calculated that raising the full retirement age to 70 from 67 would reduce lifetime benefits by 19 percent for a worker entitled to a monthly payment of $1,000.
Working longer is a key strategy for improving retirement security for knowledge workers and professionals best positioned to pull it off. It doesn't work well for workers who do physically demanding low income jobs. Simpson and Bowles are recommending a "hardship exception" for certain occupations where working longer isn't an option, but the devil will be in the details. Ask anyone who has struggled to qualify for Social Security disability payments the process is long and complicated
Most chronic health issues are due to poor lifestyle choices. If the expected lifespan is into the 80s or 90s, it makes sense to raise the retirement age. Perhaps when face with needing to work longer, people will take better care of themselves.
We need to stop enabling overeating, drug and alcohol abuse, and sloth.
We should also implement a Chilean style of retirement savings and take away the slush fund from Congress.
Exactly. No need to pass laws to ensure people do the healthy thing.....let them do it for the right reason.
Me? I wore my seatbelt before the law was passed.
I know people that use it ONLY becuase the law was passed.
Personal responsibility. It is not such a bad thing.