4 ms·

What I find tragic is that 'we' had all this time to gradually increase the retirement age but didn't do so. I can totally understand the political backlash of

What I find tragic is that 'we' had all this time to gradually increase the retirement age but didn't do so. I can totally understand the political backlash of trying to immediately increase the retirement age, as old people vote and young people don't. However I feel like forward looking legislators could have passed gradual increases on future generations. If we know life expectancy is gradually going upwards, why not increase the retirement age incrementally based on cohort?

dragonwriter 4y ago
> What I find tragic is that 'we' had all this time to gradually increase the retirement age but didn't do so. ‘We’ actually did exactly that, over a 20 year period that just finished in 2020, under a law passed in 1983. (‘We’ also phased in increased incentive for delayed retirement past the nominal “full retirement age” at the same time, so that the actual maximum retirement age of 70 has substantially higher benefits—+24%-+32% depending on birth year—than the nominal “full retirement age” .) https://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/IncRetAge.html https://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/IncRetAge.html
- BitwiseFool 4y ago
  I'm looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)#Full_retirement_age_(FRA) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States... Although I guess I should amend my lamentation to say that 'we' did but it wasn't nearly enough and it took them way too long to start.
thatguy0900 4y ago
Young people arnt jazzed about raising retirement either. I would like to retire some day as well. Not looking forward to the future where I get to "retire" at 80 or 90 because the generation before me couldn't handle a budget.
- powerhour 4y ago
  Agreed. Having to work to 70 and possibly beyond because some employers haven't figured out how to make their jobs not completely shitty seems like a pretty raw deal.
- sva_ 4y ago
  If I look at the age pyramid of my country, Germany, I have absolutely no idea how this system is supposed to be maintained over the next 10-20 years: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Alterspyramide_Deutschland_2021_%28CIA_World_Factbook%29.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Alterspy... The bulk of people are at an age now, that they'll retire soon or are retiring. Even though we already import tons of young people (look at the amount of young males vs females - 50% of young people here have a migration background), I can't imagine we can import enough young laborers from other countries, and Germans don't reproduce nearly enough - which is understandable considering how things are going.
woofyman 4y ago
Good luck finding a job at 70
kelnos 4y ago
But... why? As productivity levels go up and life expectancy goes up, we should be able to allow people to enjoy retirement more, not less. If we can't do that, then perhaps capitalism is just garbage and we need to find a better way. Also I do wonder if life expectancy increases are translating directly into the possibility of more "productive years". I wouldn't be surprised if some of the life expectancy increase is due to medical procedures that extend life at the expense of quality of life. People in these situations wouldn't be working anyway.

dragonwriter 4y ago

> What I find tragic is that 'we' had all this time to gradually increase the retirement age but didn't do so. ‘We’ actually did exactly that, over a 20 year period that just finished in 2020, under a law passed in 1983. (‘We’ also phased in increased incentive for delayed retirement past the nominal “full retirement age” at the same time, so that the actual maximum retirement age of 70 has substantially higher benefits—+24%-+32% depending on birth year—than the nominal “full retirement age” .) https://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/IncRetAge.html https://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/IncRetAge.html

BitwiseFool 4y ago
I'm looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)#Full_retirement_age_(FRA) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States... Although I guess I should amend my lamentation to say that 'we' did but it wasn't nearly enough and it took them way too long to start.

thatguy0900 4y ago

Young people arnt jazzed about raising retirement either. I would like to retire some day as well. Not looking forward to the future where I get to "retire" at 80 or 90 because the generation before me couldn't handle a budget.

powerhour 4y ago
Agreed. Having to work to 70 and possibly beyond because some employers haven't figured out how to make their jobs not completely shitty seems like a pretty raw deal.
sva_ 4y ago
If I look at the age pyramid of my country, Germany, I have absolutely no idea how this system is supposed to be maintained over the next 10-20 years: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Alterspyramide_Deutschland_2021_%28CIA_World_Factbook%29.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Alterspy... The bulk of people are at an age now, that they'll retire soon or are retiring. Even though we already import tons of young people (look at the amount of young males vs females - 50% of young people here have a migration background), I can't imagine we can import enough young laborers from other countries, and Germans don't reproduce nearly enough - which is understandable considering how things are going.

woofyman 4y ago

Good luck finding a job at 70

kelnos 4y ago

But... why? As productivity levels go up and life expectancy goes up, we should be able to allow people to enjoy retirement more, not less. If we can't do that, then perhaps capitalism is just garbage and we need to find a better way. Also I do wonder if life expectancy increases are translating directly into the possibility of more "productive years". I wouldn't be surprised if some of the life expectancy increase is due to medical procedures that extend life at the expense of quality of life. People in these situations wouldn't be working anyway.