Prometheus 6

Quote of note:

If the elderly were willing to work longer, there would be lower taxes on everyone and fewer struggling young families. There would be more national wealth and tax revenue available to help the needy, including people no longer able to work as well as the many elderly below the poverty line because they get so little Social Security.

Is anyone thinking what raising the retirement age would do to the job market?

The result is a system that burdens the young and creates perverse incentives for people to retire when they're still middle-aged. Once you've worked 35 years, more work often yields only a tiny increase in your benefits (sometimes none at all), but you still have to keep paying the onerous Social Security tax, which has more than doubled over the last half century.

Welcome to EuroAmerican Capitalism. The whole trick of EuroAmerican Capitalism is summed up in the term net present value. We leverage the future with every financial decision made.

Anyway...

The Old and the Rested
By JOHN TIERNEY