Posted on 03/27/2008 10:54:24 AM PDT by sickoflibs
When I hear my fellow baby boomers gleefully talk about their elaborate plans to retire ASAP, head for the Tuscan hills, or otherwise continue their lifelong quest for "self-actualization," I have to bite my tongue.
It's not that I'm all work and no play. But there's just something - make that lots of things - wrong, in general, with retiring at 55, 62 or even 65. I would go so far as to call it profoundly selfish and unpatriotic.
However, if Americans retired later, either staying in their current jobs or taking up "encore careers" - what Marc Freedman of Civic Ventures calls do-good, later-life jobs - we could significantly slow the growth of our multitrillion-dollar national debt, which is largely driven by rising Medicare and Social Security costs (as yesterday's Social Security trustees' report makes abundantly clear). We also could keep more people in a labor force that would no longer be growing appreciably if not for immigrants. For individuals, working longer can mean more income and savings and something to bequeath to one's children. For the nation, if millions of us worked until 67 instead of 62, Americans' wealth and consumption would increase appreciably, fueling stronger economic growth. That added income would provide about $800 billion in additional tax revenues, and reduce government benefit costs by at least $100 billion in 2045, according to Urban Institute calculations. This alone would cut the projected deficit in 2045 by 159 percent.
To encourage such behavior, Social Security benefits taken before age 66 or 70 could be more highly taxed, and employee rates of Social Security taxation could be progressively reduced for each year worked after 66 or 70. Or the government could provide a similar sliding tax credit for Americans who continue working beyond age 70.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
you need to use the entire saying.....after “ Bite me” you are supposed to add “doughboy”
Why not raise the eligibility age to 90? That would solve our fiscal problem for a long time. SS is quite a system now. You can contribute to the system for 50 years and not collect a dime except a small burial allowance.
My grandfather retired when he was 81.
Tell me about it. Having put in a few hundred grand myself, I'd hate to lose that money. Ideally, we would phase it out by gradually raising eligibility requirements. At the same time, a ponzi scheme like this has to end eventually. Getting more than you contributed only works if more and more suckers join the tax rolls. Current birth rates are just at replacement levels, so increasing numbers of suckers aren't signing up. And getting low-skilled immigrants into the country only adds to rather than subtracts from the tax burden.
That's been my plan for going on 31 years. Now that I'm close I admit I'm getting nervous with everything that's happening with the economy, dollar devaluation, fuel prices, inflation, etc. but I hope I find the nerve to go for it.
One thing I've kept over the years is a 2003 article on an actuarial life span study on Boeing Aerospace retirees done by Dr. Ephrem Cheng. His results showed that the earlier the employee retired, the longer the average life span, with those retiring at 50 living an average 86 years, those retiring at 55 living an average of 83.2 years, to those retiring at 65.2 years living to an average age of only 66.8.....only 1.6 years beyond retirement.
He concluded that for every one year one works beyond age 55, one loses an average two years of life span due to the increasing stress and strain on the aging body and mind that leads to development of stress induced illnesses which end up forcing retirement anyway.
My father retired at 55, now that he’s 62 he’s getting SS. He had colon cancer and just had a heart stent put in- and didn’t want to wait any longer. The difference in benefits between collecting at 62 and 65 was very small. My Mom also decided to get her SS too... it’s all discretionary income for them because of my fathers pension and my mothers investment income. I am happy that they get to travel and do things after working all these years. NO one should have to work until the day the die unless they want to. What a horrible existence.
Welcome to socialized medicine. They take your pay your whole life and when you get sick they put the younger poor at the top of the list and you at the botton. Right now you can save that money and pay a doctor. The government decides who lives and dies.
Not too good at math is he? Let's see...cutting 159% of a deficit sounds a lot like a surplus to me! He must have grown up learning new math.
What a tosser this moron is.
FYI: Your SS contributions don't belong to you. The Supreme Court ruled in Flemming v. Nestor that there is no legal right to Social Security benefits. Source: Flemming V. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603, 610�11 (1960)
My goal is to retire and be in the underground economy.
:- )
Exactly what we’re seeing in the UK and Canada. Give it a few years of socialized health care, all those who were screaming for “free” health care are going to find out the ramifications of “free.” Then the real screaming will begin.
LOL, yeah, let’s tell the elderly VOTERS about this scumbag’s plan to mess with their soshsecurity. Personally, I am in sight of S.S. and after a lifetime of dumping money down the big government toilet, I better not get ripped off out of so much as one thin dime. If the scumbags try ANYTHING to cut my S.S. benefits, I am just vindictive enough and loud enough to let seniors all across the countryside know that their scumbag politicians plan to SLASH their soshsecurity, feed them cat food, and put them in a home...
Exactly wrong (not you Coyote, the author). The libs don't want non-credentialled people mucking around in the Education & Public Welfare sectors. Common sense might sneak in & what then???
I have seen that study and it has a lot of critics.
Here’s one with the exact opposite conclusion:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/rapidpdf/bmj.38586.448704.E0v1.pdf
I’m not sure what the “right” answer is
“It’s not that I’m all work and no play. But there’s just something - make that lots of things - wrong, in general, with retiring at 55, 62 or even 65. I would go so far as to call it profoundly selfish and unpatriotic”
Just one more elitist liberal trying to conceal his thirst for more government revenue behind a wisp of patriotism. Run them ol’ folks into the ground, just so long as they keep paying into the system!
The fact that people have longer life expectancies AFTER they retire now, vis-a-vis the 1940’s, is primarily due to improvements in medical technology that are able to keep older folks alive, and has little to do with the normal aging processes that affect all humans up to, say, age 65.
It is true that aging is “an individual process” - that is to say, that some folks just wear out sooner than others, and some can keep going much longer than most. But I think it’s safe to say that by the mid-sixties, most people are reaching a point where they’re slowing down (both physically and mentally) to a level at which they are having trouble keeping up with the younger workers, and producing at the level that they once did.
I’m willing to bet that Mr. Yarrow has never worked a full day of paid physical labor in his life, other than pounding on keyboards or lifting file folders.
I think it’s fair to say that by the time most guys in the construction trades reach age 60, they’re starting to get TIRED from working. It’s a tough row for them to hoe it to 65, 66, or 67 (as the age will eventually become for younger workers). Just how long does one expect a man to keep going as his body begins to wear out? Oh, I’m sorry, it’s “selfish” to wish for relief from such things.
Fearless prediction: the retire age isn’t going any higher than age 67. The boomers coming into retirement now will NEVER permit that to happen on thier watch. Who wants to be closing in on retirement, only to be told, no, you have to work four or five more years? Or even two?
Ain’t gonna happen.
- John
except a small burial allowance.
Not needed. Turn seniors into food.
See post #50
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