SS isn't nearly as bad off as people seem to think. It's solvent through my likely lifetime, anyway, unless I start eating better. There will need to be an increase in taxes or cut in benefits in the next forty years, unless we start making more babies or letting in more immigrants, but forty years is a long time.
And while, yes, life expectancy has increased dramatically, USEFULL life expectancy, not so much. A 70-year-old may have another 10-20 years of breathing to do, but he's probably not going to be able to work for most of them. Indeed, instead of having people keel over at 68 from a nice quick bout of pneumonia, they're lingering on for years with slow cancers and degenerative neurological disorders and such. The increase in life expectancy, rather than making care of the elderly cheaper, is making it more expensive. And since no sane person, saving for retirement 30-40 years ago, would have anticipated living to 95 while shelling out $700/month for prescription drugs, it's a little unrealistic to blame the problem on individuals' poor planning.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2004-11-08 06:07 am (UTC)And while, yes, life expectancy has increased dramatically, USEFULL life expectancy, not so much. A 70-year-old may have another 10-20 years of breathing to do, but he's probably not going to be able to work for most of them. Indeed, instead of having people keel over at 68 from a nice quick bout of pneumonia, they're lingering on for years with slow cancers and degenerative neurological disorders and such. The increase in life expectancy, rather than making care of the elderly cheaper, is making it more expensive. And since no sane person, saving for retirement 30-40 years ago, would have anticipated living to 95 while shelling out $700/month for prescription drugs, it's a little unrealistic to blame the problem on individuals' poor planning.