From People's Policy Project:
In 1983, Ronald Reagan signed into law a cut to Social Security benefits. Under the law, the Social Security full retirement age gradually increased from from 65 in 2000 to 67 at the end of 2022. ...
In the lead up to the passage of the legislation, a popular argument for raising the retirement age was that life expectancy had increased, so people should work for longer. The presumption was that the increase in life expectancy since Social Security’s implementation would continue as the retirement age rose. But, in reality, something peculiar happened.
Over the same period during which the 1983 law forced the retirement age up from 65 to 67, life expectancy in the US actually declined. In 2000, US life expectancy was 76.8 years. According to data released last December, life expectancy in 2021 was 76.4 years. This was the second consecutive year of significant life expectancy decline. ...
Well the decrease in life expectancy was the direct result of the opioid crisis. Avoid heroin, meth and fentanyl.
ReplyDeleteYeah, no. The largest contributor to the decrease the past 2 years has been COVID. But sure, keep implying it's only the bad people who are doing it to themselves that are dying early.
DeleteAhh the Great American Dream, work until you are too old to do all the stuff you wanted to do in retirement and spend your remaining days sick and declining to death fighting Medicare. Your job ad will be posted on Indeed before your obit hits the papers. This is the good life!
ReplyDeleteIt all sounds fine when you're young, but it's harder and harder to get, let alone hold, a good paying job as you age. Let alone a cushy desk job. Ever since the nonsense of trickle down economics under the Reagan administration, greed has only gotten worse among the well to do.
ReplyDeleteBased on the general health of most of the population, I would expect this downward trend to continue.
ReplyDeleteWasn't the life expectancy less than 65 when SSA first started and 65 was the retirement age?
ReplyDeleteLife expectancy at birth means nothing in terms of Social Security retirement benefits. Life expectancy at 62 is what matters.
DeleteWith that said, life expectancy at birth did not exceed 65 until 1942, seven years after the creation of SSA. Bear in mind though, that was largely due to high infant mortality rates. Life expectancy for adults has not increased dramatically since 1935.
Oh, I found it, rich people live longer than poor people, thats why we have to save the rich.
ReplyDelete@1:19
ReplyDeleteAverage Life expectancy was 61, but that was due to higher mortality at birth. The number to actually consider is the median age at death. As best as I can tell, that was not tracked in 1937 when SSA started. But even setting that aside, in 1937 average life expectancy (including death relating to birth, ie the fetus or mother), was about 62 when retirement was 65 which is close. And from 1950 forward, life expectancy has exceeded normal retirement age and the trust fund balances have only actually decreased at all in 2018, 2021, and 2022.
@1031 AM Life expectancy at age 65 has gone up from 12.7 years at age 65 for men (14.7 for women) in 1940 to 15.3 years for men and 19.6 years for women. A much greater increase for women but if you average both sexes it is close to 4 years.
ReplyDeleteUntil 1956 for women and 1961 for men, there was no filing for retirement at age 62. So while life expectancy has gone up 3-4 years, one can file 3 years earlier than when the SSA act was passed. https://www.ssa.gov/history/lifeexpect.html
Kinda skipped that whole moving full retirement ahead thing, and the penalties for early filing there 4:24.
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