Discussion: Social Security Reform - Adjustable Retirement Age (Part 1)

Hello Readers,

So far I have proposed the implementation of an automatically adjustable retirement age for collecting social security retirement benefits and reviewed some of the comments that the proposal prompted.

After considering all of these comments, I would like to put forward a few counter arguments and clarifications to defend my position as well as a few amendments and concessions to help sharpen my proposal.

Yet before I continue, I must clarify that the proposal would not force the elderly to remain in the work place. It simply delays the age at which government-funded social security retirement benefits could be collected. Anyone who has enough personal savings to retire would still be perfectly capable of retiring. Such self-funded retirees would just have to wait for social security payments to kick in at the same age as everyone else. To my knowledge, the current system also works this way just with a much earlier retirement age.

A lot of the comments focus on the extra burden placed on each aging individual, so a majority of the discussion will have a similar focus. Retaining more seniors in the work place admittedly has the potential to pose difficulties for individuals, families, companies, and/or society. Thus, altering the legislation would need to be accompanied by a shift in corporate culture as well as society in general.

After innumerable conversations with my grandfather, who is currently in his 80s and regularly recounts his doctor's advice to stay active, I find a great deal of difficulty with assertions that encouraging a later retirement age will decrease life expectancy. To the contrary, I would suggest that allowing and/or encouraging seniors to remain active in the workplace just a little bit longer may be to their benefit.

However, as one comment pointed out, "[J]ust because the average life expectancy has increased, does not mean that people's capability to work/support themselves has stretched out likewise." Unfortunately, this is largely the case. As people age past middle age, their stamina and mental acuity often decline, which could lead to frustration for seniors, coworkers, and customers.

Still, this difference between youth and age does not necessarily mean that seniors are incapable of working. Instead, it may just mean that contemporary career ladders need to be reassessed. Today, most careers (at least in theory) start off with 'entry-level' or apprenticeship work move onto some version of team leader or 'mid-level' management and then progress to an executive or 'senior-level' management position before heading into retirement.

Of course, modern career paths are often fraught with diversions, road-blocks, and side-tracks. Yet, the pattern typically remains the same: the older and more experienced a person becomes the more responsibility is placed upon them up until retirement. Perhaps this career arc needs to include a bit of socially lauded decompression.

This could take a variety of forms ranging from simply allowing for decreased working hours for more elderly employees to allowing aging workers to start to assume mentoring or less strenuous positions with lessened direct responsibility. This sort progression already takes place to some extent when seniors 'come out of retirement' to take on part-time jobs.

This discussion is continued in Discussion: Social Security Reform - Adjustable Retirement Age (Part 2).