(Photo credit: Flickr user Philip Taylor PT)
Right-wing politicians and their appeasers have a new cause: raising the Social Security retirement age, which would amount to a huge cut to the system. They claim that this is necessary to shore up the future solvency of the system, but the truth is that simply raising the payroll tax cap — so that the rich would have to pay a little bit more — would secure the system for theAi??foreseeableAi??future. And gains in life expectancy have mostly been concentratedAi??among white collar workers — blue collar workers are mostly not living much longer. By asking working Americans to work longer so that the rich don’t have to pay a little bit more, these politicians are essentially demanding a lot of pain to avoid a little inconvenience. And there’s one underlying truth about the retirement age that these politicians are not acknowledging. Social Security is actually not providing enough social support for those in their old age. This USA Today article from last near notes that nearly a fifth of Americans 65 and older are still workingand have failed to retire, a number that had increased as the economy and inequality worsened:
The percentage of people who work and people who want to work has increased markedly in both the 65-and-older and 75-and-older groups, says Sara Rix, senior adviser for the AARP Public Policy Institute. For 2011, the participation rate for 65 and older was 17.9% compared with 10.8% in 1985. For 75 and older, the rate jumped from 4.3% in 1990 to 7.5% in 2011.Ai??“Those are whopping increases,” Rix says. “I see these rates continuing to increase as we move into the future.”
These numbers point to a stark fact: while the current retirement age stands at 65 (and it will move to 67 over time by law), the current effective retirement age — the age where people can actually comfortably stop working — is much higher than 65 for tens of millions of Americans. A late 2011 New York Times piece noted that “36.5 percent of 65- to 69-year-old men are still part of Americaai??i??s labor force,” and “nearly 450,000 Americans 65 and older are unemployed and looking to work.” No doubt there will be a lot of reasonable disagreement about how best to address the needs of the tens of millions of seniors who can’t afford to retire. But one thing is for sure. Raising the retirement age would be a cruel andAi??unnecessaryAi??step, especially when there are so many people 65 and over who still can’t afford to stop working.
Tell Obama and Democrats: No Cuts to Social Security or Medicare.
I am 66 years old and still working. I would love to be able to retire but I cannot afford to retire, like so many, many, many others. My annual income has been less than $30,000 and Social Security would cut that in half.
However, IF seniors were able to retire, that would open up the job market for all those unemployed younger folks. IF seniors had adequate incomes after retirement, a great number of us would and that would help the economy. IF retired seniors want to remain busy, we would undoubtedly volunteer our skills for non-profits and assist society in that way.
Retire. Sounds like heaven unless you are just able to cover your expenses, enjoy thrift stores, etc. I worked until I was 69. I was trying for 70 but just ran out of steam 5 months too soon. At least I had a car then. I don’t now. I live in an area with no bus services. No to-house mail delivery. No sidewalks. A 25mph speed limit that most everyone ignores because it is fun to race through the canyon. This generally wipes out at least one biker a week not counting the cars that fail to make the curve, sorry but therefore no safe walking for me and my cane. But also no grocery shopping, or any other shopping without my daughter cutting into her schedule or loaning me her car. I wanted do to take a cruise for fun now my fun is not so much fun and is mostly sitting down. So, please don’t raise the retirement age. Give those who can a bit of life to enjoy before old age takes over
Thank you for sharing your story Margaret — it is very brave of you. We will do everything we can to stop them from raising it or cutting Social Security or Medicare.