CSM calls for raising SS full retirement age to 70
From an editorial in today’s CSM:
Governments in wealthier nations need to rethink the whole concept of “retire” and adjust their policies to make it easier for older people to keep working, find work, and receive training. Aging need not mean setting limits on one’s agility, alertness, and ability to contribute.
In a little-noticed news item last week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the think tank for 30 industrialized nations, warned that world economic growth will decline to 1.7 percent over the next 30 years if older people aren’t encouraged or allowed to work. If nothing is done, the OECD stated, the ratio of nonworking retirees to workers will nearly double in those countries by mid-century.This demographic reality usually draws a simple political response: raise taxes or lower benefits, or both.
In Congress, that way of thinking has led to stalemate on revising Social Security. Both political parties need to discuss a retirement age of at least 70 for both Social Security and Medicare for the next generation.Better yet, it should index the age requirement to rising longevity so this issue can be done with.Americans who turn 65 this year are expected to live four and a half years longer than the typical 65-year-old in 1940. On average, today’s Americans spend nearly a third of their life in retirement. And yet three-quarters receive benefits before turning 65. While retirees deserve those benefits, and many are not able to work, the system, indeed the workplace, still needs to change. A Merrill Lynch survey last year found most boomers hope to work in some capacity in retirement.