Raise The Social Security Age To (At Least) 75

Mises Institute ^ | 01/29/2023 | Ryan McMaken

[KC Burke]

No one can fault you of any of that.

My wife and I started to get into investigating new hobbies to consider in our late fifties in preparation for retirement. Art was one of those areas and we purchased a lot of art items and supplies while we had the income. Now we piddle with some of it on our own schedule — no hurry.

I got into collecting harmonicas. I am not very versed in playing them but I sure have a lot of knowledge and a pretty good collection.

I was really into digital photography but have given a lot of that equipment to my sons and kept the core items.

I probably get the most enjoyment out of spoiling my wife. She gets a kick out of those evenings where I do all the dinner prep, cooking and clean up and she works on her needlework. I was a mess Sgt as a kid, so I enjoy it as well.

Anyway, my point is that retirement is what you make of it if you keep an inventive and investigative attitude.

[SamAdams76]

With regard to housewives, who never earned the 40 credits (10 years of work) to qualify for a Social Security check on their own, they are entitled (as they should be) to their husband's benefits for the remainder of their life should they become widowed.

I think that benefit is pretty much untouchable so nobody needs to worry about that.

[CapnJack]

But isn’t it true that a wife would have to wait till they are of retirement age before they could collect on their husbands SS benefits?

For example if the wife is 20 something years younger then the husband and he kicks the bucket at say, 60 yrs old ... would she have to wait till she is 65 to be able to get any benefit ... or since the husband kicked off before retirement age, the 40 yrs old house wife is SOL?

[SamAdams76]

I’m not a Social Security expert but I’m pretty sure a surviving spouse can collect on her husband’s Social Security benefits at any age. It is reduced if she claims them before she is herself of full retirement age, but she will get something.

[Locomotive Breath]

Before Social Security, you either worked until you dropped or you moved in with your adult children.

That's right. Thereby promoting personal responsibility to save for retirement and providing a strong motivation for people to have children and to make sure that they would have a skill to earn a wage. With Social Security you need not have your own kids. You can not spend money on kids and live it up when you should be saving for retirement. Then, when you retire, you can receive benefits and live on the back of kids who were raised by other people. If I were running the show, your Social Security benefit would be predicated on the amount of tax paid by your own kids.

Social Security is doomed by demographics but it's so politically unacceptable to touch it that as a country we'll just wait until the whole thing crashes and burns.

[NorthMountain]

It’s always amusing to watch supposed “conservatives” on a supposedly “conservative” discussion forum angrily defending socialism.

[Texas Fossil]

Notice the significant drop in past 2 years?

The Jab.