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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/opinion/social-security-medicare-aging.html
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| For the Good of the Country, Older Americans Should Work More and Take Less | For the Good of the Country, Older Americans Should Work More and Take Less |
| (about 7 hours later) | |
| We older Americans are not only controlling national politics; we are consuming an ever larger share of our economy’s resources through programs like Social Security and Medicare, leaving younger Americans to foot growing bills for their parents’ and grandparents’ retirements. And politicians of both parties are refusing to recognize the consequences. | We older Americans are not only controlling national politics; we are consuming an ever larger share of our economy’s resources through programs like Social Security and Medicare, leaving younger Americans to foot growing bills for their parents’ and grandparents’ retirements. And politicians of both parties are refusing to recognize the consequences. |
| When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Social Security into law in 1935, the age to qualify for Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance was 65. Back then, most of those at that age were poor and lacked health insurance. And many jobs were more physically demanding. When benefits were first paid in 1940, 46 percent of adult males couldn’t even make it to 65, and for those who did, the average additional life expectancy was less than 13 years. For women, it was not a lot better. | When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Social Security into law in 1935, the age to qualify for Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance was 65. Back then, most of those at that age were poor and lacked health insurance. And many jobs were more physically demanding. When benefits were first paid in 1940, 46 percent of adult males couldn’t even make it to 65, and for those who did, the average additional life expectancy was less than 13 years. For women, it was not a lot better. |
| Today many 65-year-olds are healthy enough to live independently, play golf or pickleball daily and travel far and wide. Picture the vigorous contestants, age 60 to 75, on the new television dating show “The Golden Bachelor.” Every contestant older than 70 is retired, as are some as young as 60. “Here’s to Social Security!” one grateful contestant exults. Indeed! | Today many 65-year-olds are healthy enough to live independently, play golf or pickleball daily and travel far and wide. Picture the vigorous contestants, age 60 to 75, on the new television dating show “The Golden Bachelor.” Every contestant older than 70 is retired, as are some as young as 60. “Here’s to Social Security!” one grateful contestant exults. Indeed! |
| For a typical 65-year-old couple, at least one partner, on average, will likely make it to 90 or beyond. Yet even as life expectancy has risen since 1935, the minimum age to qualify for at least a portion of your Social Security benefits has fallen to 62. That means that many people are now drawing from Social Security for as much as a third of their adult lives, if not more. If people took the same number of retirement years as the average person retiring in 1940, they would stop working at around 77. As such, Social Security is increasingly losing its purpose as old-age insurance, as benefits stretch well into what is becoming late middle age for many. | |
| With Medicare and Social Security, older Americans are taking far more out of the system than they paid in. Consider how much lifetime Social Security and Medicare benefits have grown. For a typical 65-year-old couple, those benefits, adjusted for inflation, are worth over $1.1 million today, compared with $330,000 in 1960. Benefits rise as each generation lives longer and receives amounts that grow with the cost of living and as medical prices rise and expensive medical treatments proliferate. Yet the lifetime taxes this couple pays into Social Security and Medicare amount to about $650,000. |