Why the Retirement Age Is Increasing

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Social Security is a Government program. I'm not sure it's objective desire for Government to pilfer thru these appropriations, but rather a Corporate/Gov't (both Dem. and Rep) initiative to continue to cut down the social safety net that so many Americans have worked and sacrificed for. I understand its all very confusing and hard to figure out in these times of mass media distraction and propaganda, but just look at who has become wealthier in the last 30 years. You will find it's not working or middle class people but Corporations and their insatiable appetite for their own social security. The bank bailout...hello! This is not capitalism any longer. Wake up people! Technology and Electronics have changed our Economy. But we can use this technology to make the world a better place for humans everywhere, just not on Wall Street or K Street, or wherever else these Corporate whores and pimps live "free."

Jeff of AL 5:57PM December 02, 2010

I've paid into SS ever since I started working. My employers have also matched that amount. IF the government kept their hands off it and it earned say 6% we could all retire wealthy. Also, if you don't pay into SS you shouldn't be able to take it out.

Craig of ID 10:57AM December 02, 2010

I am 63yrs old should I take my pension now at a discount or wait till I am 65 when it might be raised to 67?

usbloke of CA 12:13AM December 02, 2010

I AM A BABY BOOMER BORN IN 1951 AND I SO DO AGREE WITH YOU LARRY! AFTER WORKING SINCE I WAS 12, NON STOP, I AM SO LOOKING FORWARD FOR MY RETIREMENT AND PLAN ON DOING IT AT AGE 62 SO I CAN AT LEAST GO PART TIME AT MY JOB. WORKING 5 NITES A WEEK IS A REAL STRESSFUL AND KILLER SITUATION FOR SOMEONE OF OUR AGE. THEY DO EXPECT US TO DO ALOT MORE IN LESS TIME OR GIVE US JOBS TO DO THAT A MUCH YOUNGER PERSON COULD HANDLE BETTER. I DO BELIEVE THAT BY US BABY BOOMERS RETIRING OR GOING PART TIME WOULD FREE UP ALOT OF JOBS FOR THE YOUNGER GENERATION LOOKING FOR EMPLOYMENT! THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH THAT SITUATION IS, THE EMPLOYERS KNOW THIS AND WILL ONLY HIRE PART TIME WORKERS TO REPLACE US AND PAY VERY LOW WAGES, WHICH IN THIS ECONOMIC HARD TIME THAT WE ARE ALL GOING THROUGH, ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING. THE REALLY SCARY PART ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY WILL BE FOR OUR CHILDREN AND THEN THEIR CHILREN AND SO FORTH. YOU CAN'T INSIST ON ANYONE TO SAVE BECAUSE MOST OF US ARE LIVING PAY CHECK TO PAY CHECK AND HAVE NOTHING TO SAVE. I DID DO THE WISE THING AND GET A 401K STARTED YEARS AGO AND STARTED PURCHASING STOCKS WITH MY JOB, WHICH IN A REAL PINCH DOES HELP OUT, BUT EVEN NOW YOUR MONEY IS NOT SAFE IN YOUR 401K AND WHEN I TURN 59 1/2, I AM WITHDRAWING MY MONEY OUT. I THINK IT WILL BE SAFER WITH ME! GOOD LUCK TO YOU LARRY, TAKE CARE!

SUGARB of OH 2:11PM December 01, 2010

"When the baby boomer generation retires, it is expected to create labor shortages in many industries. 'We are going to be losing a lot of workers and we don't have a lot of people to take their place because the next generation after the baby boom is smaller,' says Victor Marshall, a sociology professor for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Institute on Aging."
I think the 10% unemployment rate will eat up a lot of that labor shortage, as it doesn't appear the job market will be improving anytime soon.

Bob G. of NJ 12:44PM December 01, 2010

That all goes with the whole Social Security lies they're telling people. Social Security will pay out for the next 70 years, its at a surplus IDIOTS!

Rick of CA 12:43PM December 01, 2010

I will be 57 my next birthday which is December the 4th and when I was just a kid retirement was at the age of 55 and I wish it was still that age.
Here I am almost 60 in about 3 years and it is getting harder to have to go to work everyday earning a living.
I have been working since I was just a kid and haven't ever stopped now it is getting harder in doing my job at hand.
I am a stocker at a local grocery store and have been doing this certain job for 13 years a job that is meant for someone at the age of 20.
Grocery stores gives you a job that takes 50 hours and expects you to do it in 40 not only is it a hard job but very very stressful.
I just wish that our country would understand what they are doing by moving the retirement age up for people that should have already retired.
Like I said I have already worked almost my whole life now they want to move the retirement age up.
I even wrote two books one called Brutus the Swamp Man which u can find on www.brutusbook.com and one poem book called Love For All Man Kind hoping I could make enough money so I could retire but being an author is still a hard way making a living if you don't have enough money to market you books.
I want one day to put Brutus on screen but it is hard to get ahold of the right people to look at your work.
The book I wrote is a great story and would make a great movie.
I just wish our country would understand what there doing to their nation by rasing the retire age.

Larry of TX 11:26AM December 01, 2010

Well expressed val! I'm in the same boat too and it's really frustrating. You hit the nail right on the head!

Nanci of NC 8:29AM December 01, 2010

I second everything that both Val of mn and Mr. Rowland have stated as I too have been working over 30 yrs only to see the retirement age keep raising.. It infuriates me that those of us in the middle class are so ignorant,, they don't realize what they did when they put the republicans back in congress with this last election of how badly they screwed themselves,, helping the greedy top 10% of the wealthiest Americans by returning Bush's tax cuts to them. It's stupidity like this that has us in this economic mess,, something that started on Bush's watch and has been so enormous that it has been an overwhelming challenge for the Obama administration to overcome. I'm tired of feeding the military machine that numerous times in my lifetime has put us in wars that in every case with the exception of World War II has not been in actual defense, we just go to other countries and kill people, a lot of them innocent kids who don't get a snowballs chance in hell at life. We have been led around by the nose, worked our butts off the last 50 yrs only to line the pockets of the wealthy and send our sons and daughters to war. Why is it one man decides whether we go to war and why is it those in congress are allowed to vote on their own raises? It's gonna take a revolution of great magnitude to stop this endless cycle. If they had actually wanted to fix the economy they could have distributed the stimulus money to the people, stop and think about it,, 750 billion to 300 million people if Im correct but they would rather just bail out the big banks and larger corporations who obviously don't know how to handle their money but yet pay CEO's outrageous sums to run their business.. Is it any wonder things are the way the are?

Dave of MO 8:02AM December 01, 2010

Retirement, as it is used here, is another way to say that a person stops becoming productive to the economy. We still spend in retirement, just as money is spent on children, but the "work" input to the economy is not there. People who are working support the people, children and retired, who are not. It is not about getting what you "deserve" for working... it is about having a reasonable support ratio. We cannot tax the working to support the non working beyond a reasonable level, or we will cause social unrest and chaos. As people live longer and our society requires greater levels of education and training, if we keep the retirement age the same then more people are in the retirement pool and more young people are in the education pool. On a macro economic level it is really that simple. Retirement ages were originally set at the median life expectancy. In the USA the age of 65 was chosen because only half the population lived past 65. The median life expectancy is now 78 and yet the retirement age has only increased to 67. This is why social security has a problem... the good news is that the productivity increases over the past 50 years have allowed us to make it a much smaller problem than what is might have been. Bottom line is that you should contribute to society for as long as you are capable, even if that is volunteer work when "retired". Otherwise society has to pay people to do that work and we all have to pay for it some how. The more the governments do for us, they less efficient society is.

R.A. M of IL 1:31PM November 28, 2010