Posted on 06/25/2026 12:20:50 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
With Germany poised to become the latest country to raise its retirement age, that unpopular option may fall on Americans as Social Security faces insolvency in the next six years.
Germany’s government-appointed pension commission this week released a series of recommendations to strengthen its pension system, including gradually raising the retirement age to 70 by 2092. The standard retirement age in Germany has already been creeping higher and is set to hit 67 by 2031.
The German commission also recommended scrapping a rule that currently allows workers who have contributed for 45 years to retire at 63 without financial penalties. The proposals must go through parliamentary debates and votes before any changes become law.
What's Next for Social Security?
Germany’s move follows other countries such as France, Italy and China, which have all weighed proposals or enacted new laws to raise their retirement ages. It’s unclear whether the U.S. will join these ranks as Social Security faces insolvency by 2032 — at which point benefits would be cut by 22% unless Congress acts to shore up the system.
Such measures come as countries around the world are facing declines in population, leaving fewer people to pay into pension and retirement systems that support retirees. In the U.S., the fertility rate — or the number of births per woman — has fallen steadily since 2007.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
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Raising the retirement age up to say 70, would be one of the least painful options to close the gap. This would need to happen a good deal faster than Germany’s proposal to eventually get that done by 2092. Another would be means testing social security. I believe both will happen. Doubtless more painful steps such as raising taxes or slashing benefits will need to happen too.
Or bolstering the program with funds saved from reducing fraud - it's a big number. But that would be rewarding hard workers and not thieves who vote Democrat.
Yea, except for those of us who are almost 65 and are looking forward to getting out of the daily grind and retiring.
I want to get up in the morning and do what I want to do not what some employer wants me to do.
Yea, except for those of us who are almost 65 and are looking forward to getting out of the daily grind and retiring.
I want to get up in the morning and do what I want to do not what some employer wants me to do.
It’s interesting that never actually fixing its flawed financial\funding structure is never on the table.
Chile did it! As I understand it, their old system was similar to our SS system. They moved away from a Ponzi Scheme system. Why can’t we?
Crack down on the fraud in the Social Security SSDI and SSI disability programs.
Cancel all of the welfare programs and just give all of that money to the old people.
FLT-bird wrote: “Another would be means testing social security.”
Means testing social security would convert it to a welfare program.
The company I worked for had a big layoff when I was 58. Turns out about 70% of those laid off were in our late fifties. Getting another job was extremely hard. I was in good enough financial shape that I was able to simply involuntarily stop working until I hit retirement age. But most people are not in that condition in their late fifties.
Along about 65 I started having medical issues that would have made working a forty-hour high stress or physically punishing job impossible. I have a couple of part-time workers now who are in their forties and fifties. They are doing physical work, and they can only work a few hours per week.
I’m 72 so I don’t have a dog in this fight. But I think there needs to be a better solution than forcing people to work in their old age. Publix has a lot of elderly workers. Some of them appear to be in their eighties. I assure you they aren’t doing it for the fun of it. They groan lifting groceries taking them to the car. I feel sorry for them, and they can’t even accept tips.
The long term solution is ear-marking SS payments.
Workers can either pay their SS taxes as they currently do OR they can choose to earmark their SS taxes (not the employer’s contribution) to a particular person or people.
The recipients could either take the whole calculated amount from the government or they can take 1/2 the amount from the government (funded by the employer contributions of the general public) and ALL of the ear-marked funds from their kids/nephews/nieces/etc.
If me and my 2 siblings and our 10 kids were each paying 6.2% of our salaries to our parents/grandparents every month AND they were still receiving 1/2 of their normal amount each month, they would be WAY ahead.
This wouldn’t solve the problem overnight but in 20 years, you would see people investing in having more and better adjusted children.
Those additional, successful kids that everyone will be raising will raise the tide for everyone in the next generation.
If you were born in 1960 or later, then the full retirement age is 67
I get it.....but that’s not going to be an option soon. The rubber is hitting the road and changes will have to be made or the whole ponzi scheme will collapse.
Yes, we need to change how its structured and make it a fully funded system rather than a pay as you go system but there is going to be a big funding gap that has to be covered first.
How about that? The cold hard facts of actuarial tables and math coming to reality. Imagine that?
Got news for all, those that don’t pay their own way are a burden for those that do and that can’t go on. That busted system is collapsing.
Socialism does not work now, never has and never will.
Common misunderstanding. There are separate programs. The disability program is actually projected to remain 100% funded through the end of the century.
From the trustees annual report:
The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits until the fourth quarter of 2032, one quarter earlier than projected last year. At that time, the fund’s reserves will become depleted and continuing program income will be sufficient to pay 78 percent of total scheduled benefits.
• The Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund is projected to be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits through at least 2100, the last year of this report’s projection period. Last year’s report projected that the DI Trust Fund would be able to pay scheduled benefits through at least 2099, the last year of that report’s projection period.
Politicians are morons.
Crack down on all fraud, then you could increase SS payments.
Men who work in the heavy trades (e.g., iron workers) may not be able to physically last that long.
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