Social Security was enacted in 1935 and payments began in 1937. Life expectancy for men and women at that time was in the low Sixties, although, like today, it was roughly two years higher for women than men. The retirement age for collecting Social Security was 65.
Now recipients can retire earlier. I retired at age 62, although I did continue part-time employment for another five or six years. The average life expectancy for men is about 79, although it is inching upward. This means that more people are receiving Social Security payments for more years, and it is putting a strain on the system.
A number of proposals have been advanced to ensure that the system does not go bankrupt. One is to have more undocumented workers, since they often pay into the system but don’t collect the benefits. This seems both unfair and immoral.
Another proposal is to raise the retirement age. Who advances that idea? If you check, you will find it is often proposed by members of Congress, economists, and the Republican business class. You will not find it proposed by janitors, long-haul truck drivers, warehouse workers, miners. and construction workers.
My idea is to peg the year you collect Social Security to the life expectancy of the workers in your field. It should be relatively easy to figure that out. Then you pass a law that you can collect your payments five years before your average life expectancy. You’d probably need to factor in incomes and the availability of medical care. If you are working as a college professor and you didn’t like that system, then become a construction worker or a miner. I think that would work.
Or the taxable cap should be raised to $1,000,000. Problem solved! If no one would like that, then start to take six percent of all stock gains when sold.
ReplyDeleteI thought about that as well, but I decided to go with one issue at a time. I worry that some of these posts are too long, and maybe just a bit boring and even too much into the weeds.
ReplyDeleteI was doing the math in the shower yesterday morning, before work. I took on my first mortgage at 42. My youngest stepchild is 13. My oldest is only 15.
ReplyDeleteMy retirement savings have underperformed thanks to all the financial crises in the US since I started working in 1990.
I came to the conclusion that I'm likely to work another 20 years, until I'm 72, as long as I am viable in the workforce. But that line of work is IT, notoriously a young person's game.
My wife and I are considering retiring to Mexico. It might be the only way we can afford to retire.