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Should Retirement Age Be Raised to 70?

Should SSI Retirement Be Set At 70?

  • Yes

    Votes: 13 31.0%
  • No

    Votes: 23 54.8%
  • Maybe (explain)

    Votes: 6 14.3%

  • Total voters
    42

LizardofOz

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Boehner seems to think so: Boehner: Raise Social Security retirement to 70 and means-test benefits -

Of course he would raise it to 70 though, the guy is half retired already! He only has to work for 3 weeks (if Republicans get their way this year) for the rest of the year, and he gets plenty of golf time already so who cares?

Me? I want to be working and not be able to enjoy grand kids, great grand kids, or life at all when I'm older. I want to make sure I work my dick straight into the ground.
 
What I would rather happen is that the money that people pay into SS actually go into it instead of being turned into T-bills. If the Republicans and Democrats would just use the money paid into Social Security for Social Security payouts instead of paying for other government programs, we wouldn't have to raise the retirement age.
 
Well, the problem is. People are living longer and the number of old people is multiplying. That's going to cost a lot of money. Still I think US can increase it to 67 for the moment and still be fine. In the US a lot of people are quite unhealthy, so they don't become very old. I mean, we lived till we were 65 in the 1950s and today americanse live till they are 68, so it makes sense that the retirement age should go up as well.

However in European countries and especially in the asian counties, they should increase their retirement age. The French can't afford to have people retire when they are 60 years old, but live till they are over 80 years old. Also they get fewer children, hence there will be less young people to support the old.
 
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The way things are as of now I would have to agree with Samsmart.




But what I would like to see is Social Security abolished along with the "retirement age".
 
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We have to raise it because the projections are that it will grow beyond the amount of money we take in for it, eliminating the excess they use for general funds and eating into the budget. Raising the age to 70 will reduce the costs and grow the revenue. It will still grow, but be paid for for longer. The next beast to tackle will be Medicare, which is growing faster than SS.
 
Yes, the retirement age needs to be raised, at least to 70, and we need to start having many more children.
 
We have to raise it because the projections are that it will grow beyond the amount of money we take in for it, eliminating the excess they use for general funds and eating into the budget. Raising the age to 70 will reduce the costs and grow the revenue. It will still grow, but be paid for for longer. The next beast to tackle will be Medicare, which is growing faster than SS.

Unless we stop the practice of turning funds paid into SS into T-bills it's not going to matter how much we raise the retirement age - there won't be enough funds in SS because they all get spent to pay for other things.
 
We have to raise it because the projections are that it will grow beyond the amount of money we take in for it, eliminating the excess they use for general funds and eating into the budget. Raising the age to 70 will reduce the costs and grow the revenue. It will still grow, but be paid for for longer. The next beast to tackle will be Medicare, which is growing faster than SS.

It will, but it's not what is driving the cost up. After what I have seen there are two factors thst drive cost up. Overconsumption and the lack of cost reducing incentives drive the cost up in health care. Also, schools are using too much money on non-school related stuff, like baseball field, indoor swimming hall, tennis courts, football field, track field, etc.

I think going for 70 years is taking it too far, because if the life expectancy is 78, then a lot of people will die straight after retirement and also a lot of people are not able to enjoy their retirement because they are too old.
 
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Yes, the retirement age needs to be raised, at least to 70, and we need to start having many more children.

or increase the number of tax-paying legal immigrants.
 
Unless we stop the practice of turning funds paid into SS into T-bills it's not going to matter how much we raise the retirement age - there won't be enough funds in SS because they all get spent to pay for other things.

Well now it will help...

If we take in X dollars for FICA and we spend x on SS leaving y dollars that gets spent on the general fund, which costs Y, paid for by taxes and fees: z:

X = x + y.
Y = z + y.

On the current course, x will grow larger than X, y will go negative and we will have to dip into general funds to pay for X. By raising the retirement age, X will grow (revenues will increase for FICA as people will work longer paying) and cover the increase in x (the cost of SS). y will stay positive, FICA contributing to the general fund.
 
It will, but it's not what is driving the cost up. After what I have seen there are two factors thst drive cost up. Overconsumption and the lack of cost reducing incentives drive the cost up in health care. Also, schools are using too much money on non-school related stuff, like baseball field, indoor swimming hall, tennis courts, football field, track field, etc.

I think going for 70 years is taking it too far, because if the life expectancy is 78, then a lot of people will die straight after retirement and also a lot of people are not able to enjoy their retirement because they are too old.

As for healthcare, the recent healthcare bill will drive costs up even more, what with taxes, an increased base of insured and fewer doctors.

Not sure what school spending has to do with the cost of healthcare.

We need to eliminate SS and reduce Medicare.
 
As for healthcare, the recent healthcare bill will drive costs up even more, what with taxes, an increased base of insured and fewer doctors.

Not sure what school spending has to do with the cost of healthcare.

We need to eliminate SS and reduce Medicare.

I agree with you there, the health care bill is not really a real reform and will only drive up costs further.

However, I was talking about the cost for the federal government. There are two factors that are causing the massive deficit. It is health care cost and education. Also, I don't think US really need to eliminate programs. The most important thing is to bring cost incentives back. Today, people on insurance pay very little themselves for health care, hence they get a lot of uneccesary treatment. Also there is little competition and lawsuits aren't helping either. This is a very good article about what is wrong Reforming American health care, from the Economist
 
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I think going for 70 years is taking it too far, because if the life expectancy is 78, then a lot of people will die straight after retirement and also a lot of people are not able to enjoy their retirement because they are too old.

Where did we develop this notion that we deserved to retire early enough to "enjoy" our retirement?
 
Where did we develop this notion that we deserved to retire early enough to "enjoy" our retirement?

Not everything is aboout money, is it? I think people deserve a period where they can do what ever they would like before they get too old to do anything fun.
 
Not everything is aboout money, is it? I think people deserve a period where they can do what ever they would like before they get too old to do anything fun.

It's not about money. It is about duty. Too much of our society is dedicated to this notion of being able to live without obligations.
 
I see no problem with raising the retirement age to 70. According to some actuarial tables I just looked up, I am probably going to live to nearly 80 anyway.
 
Social Security needs significant reform.

If that reofmr won't be talked about and actually dealt with then this is about the best bandiad we can put on that is at least feasable, and in this case I think a bandaid is better than nothing.

However the far better option is a full scale reform of SS with the money paid in being set aside, the retirement age raised slightly, and individuals under a certain age automatically opted out and those between two middle ages having the choice to opt out, and finally with a very small sales tax that goes to the SS fund that remains in place until the final person is off of Social Security. All excess money in the fund after that point either goes directly to paying down the debt or as a tax rebate.
 
Man I just love that a potentially significant portion of my retirement funds can be delegated or withheld from me based on the opinion of other people. :roll:

I hate SS, I want to direct all of my own retirement funds and decide when I want to retire.
 
20 years out means 30-somethings. The Gen-X'ers. There's not as many of them as there are of us Boomers. The age doesn't need to be raised. It's not a mandatory thing anyway. You don't ever have to retire if you don't want to.

As far as taking away benefits from the well heeled, that would be stealing, plain and simple.

Keep it at 67.5. What difference will 2.5 years really make?
 
20 years out means 30-somethings. The Gen-X'ers. There's not as many of them as there are of us Boomers. The age doesn't need to be raised. It's not a mandatory thing anyway. You don't ever have to retire if you don't want to.

As far as taking away benefits from the well heeled, that would be stealing, plain and simple.

Keep it at 67.5. What difference will 2.5 years really make?

It's just a baby step, see after they do that a few more years down the road they'll have to do it again to make it fiscally sound.

Realistically, it's much more palatable to take away from gen x and y, than to do anything to make boomers butt hurt.
They have more votes.
 
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Social Security needs to exist for people who are, by virtue of age or disability, unable to continue working.
 
If not privatized, it badly needs to have the age raised. After all, this is not what it was intended for.

Back in the socialist New Deal days, it was set at 65 years old. One problem - the average American lived to be 62 years old in that day.

The average lifespan of America today? 78 years old. Social Security was designed for people who "beat the system" with regards to lifespan. The difference is that the pay-in to pay-out ratio in those days was approximately 16 to 1. Today it's less than 4 to 1. That means that today there are four times more people who collect than back then when you compare to those who pay into the system.

Social Security was designed to fail from a long-run perspective. It should be abolished completely, or at least updated to today's standards.
 
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