Wow.
Never knew.
Well it should get better with people living to a gazillion now.
Mom and aunts and some uncles will easily surpass 90.
Of course i’m glad.
But it’s killing US.
And when the average life span is 90 one day, how high can you raise the retirement age?
Just because you reach 80 doesn’t mean you can work full time!
I guess that you are not aware that the average life span in the USA peaked and has started dropping since around 2014. Some people attribute this to the “opioid epidemic” and financial stress but inactivity and poor diet resulting in obesity and increased risk of cancer and heart disease is likely to be a more significant factor. Death from cancer has been on a continuous rise since 1950, and heart disease, the leading killer which had been declining since the 1980s has started going up again.
Until common sense returns to people's choices on diet and exercise... lifespans will continue to drop.
The problem is worse than lifespan which has leveled off, but is still far higher than when the program was started. More and more people are going onto SSI (disability) far earlier in their life. In many cases they are not working or hardly working so they pay in nothing. SSI has become another form of public assistance that can be accessed for having a hyperactive child and a whole host of other issues. Much of our homeless population struggling with addiction problems are on SSI.
Illegal immigration is also going to impact social security in a very big way. While most illegal immigrants work, they do not earn much and some work for cash under the table. However, when they are granted amnesty (seems inevitable to me) and become citizens they are now eligible for social security (and medicaid). They will consume far more than they contributed. This is an indisputable fact and it is also true for medicaid/medicare. The programs go broke on their own, but illegal immigration will accelerate the inevitable by many years.
Medicaid and Medicare are the biggest debt bombs, but absent fundamental changes to the system there is little doubt that social security is another ticking bomb that threatens our financial well-being and the future of our children. It is a classic Ponzi scheme and everyone knows how the story ends. The reality is that neither political party will touch either program because it is certain political death so they will continue to kick the can just like they do with everything else.... future generations be damned.
There is now another giant elephant in the room from the last few decades that is growing every year - our national debt. As long as congress fails to rein in spending the cost of servicing our debt (and the debt itself) will continue to grow and eat up more of the budget. Many suggest we can grow our way out of it, but that would require a balanced budget that addresses all government spending to include entitlements. That will not happen because we lack leadership and our populace is too ignorant (or they simply do not care) to understand what we are doing to our children and grandchildren. We are living above our means today and will certainly drown in debt tomorrow and our kids will pay the price.
This is not only a Federal government problem although our national debts and unfunded liabilities dwarf all others. Many of our states and local governments have the same problems on a much smaller scale. Individual or household debts are a problem. These will also accelerate the explosion as irresponsible states look to Uncle Sugar for a bailout and most of those states have the most political clout.
It will end ugly.