[quote=AN]BG, what you say about gen before you will be what us Gen X/Y will say about your generation. I can say with a certainty your generation will live longer than the gen before you. You’ll have access to stuff like, new cancer treatments, new AIDS treatments, new body party replacements using your own stem cell, etc. So, yes, on average, Boomers WILL live longer than their parents. So, you will use more than you put in to SS.[/quote]
You’re probably right, but the difference isn’t all that great. Overall life expectancy has almost no bearing on calculation. What’s important is life expectancy AFTER benefits begin. Seventyish years ago, when SS benefits began being paid, infant mortality was much higher. Over 400,000 future SS recipients died in WWII. If I remember my stats right, people who lived until they were 65 had life expectancies about 5-6 years less than they do today. With normal retirement age already increasing to 67 over the next couple decades, most of that increase has already been factored into the calculation. That life expectance has not significantly increased over the last few decades. Whether it will in the future remains to be seen.
