[quote=davelj]
If we raised our “retirement” age to 70, we would no longer have a funding problem with either SS or Medicare, even given declining birth rates. That five year gap – 65 to 70 – puts a funding gap of tens of trillions of dollars in the numbers. When SS came into existence in 1935 the average US Citizen lived to be 65. That’s why they chose 65 as the age at which you’d start receiving benefits. This number has stayed the same since, despite the fact that the average US citizen now lives to 74. The root of our problem ain’t rocket surgery. It’s just that the AARP just won’t freakin’ budge on this issue, despite the impossibility of the math working out.[/quote]
Actually, we still don’t have a funding problem with either SS or Medicare. We have PROJECTIONS that we MIGHT have a funding problem around 2040, based on certain assumptions about birth rates, life expectancies, and healthcare costs over the next 30 years.
As for the raising of the retirement age, there is a saying that you can lead the horse to the water, but you can’t make it drink. You can rise the retirement age to 70 or 75 but that will not make 69 year old workers as valuable for the economy as 25 year olds.
