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Retirement age should be lowered to 55

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posted on Jan, 1 2015 @ 10:22 AM
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a reply to: openminded2011

you can retire much much younger if you are from the usa....save your money....work hard until 40ish even....then move to a country with really low cost of living and you are retired.

become a citizen there and get their amazing healthcare....then teach english if you want more money. A good portion of america could retire this way....thats what I did...and im younger than 40....im not rich...but im retired....now i write crappy ebooks and compose m usic for fun with the occasional small bonus income.

If you were born in the usa you are very lucky economically and since the place is becoming a # hole i dont know why anyone would stay. Take your money and dump it into another economy...that is the bet way to say F U to them...voting does nothing...take their money and live abroad...youll find many many expats.



posted on Jan, 1 2015 @ 10:23 AM
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Retire at 55?


IF, one can afford to retire at 55, then by all means do so.

Mandatory?

Nope.



posted on Jan, 1 2015 @ 10:27 AM
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a reply to: openminded2011

And who pays for the extra retirement funds?

Sounds very French to me.


(post by mysterioustranger removed for a manners violation)

posted on Jan, 1 2015 @ 11:01 AM
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originally posted by: openminded2011
I have taken in the current societies ills for the past few years, and I feel the retirement age should be lowered to 55, for the following reasons.
1. People should not spend ALL of their life working. The purpose of life is to enjoy life, not to be a widget for someone ELSES wealth creation.

People are living longer and longer now...so in fact without changing the retirement age everyone is getting more life without work. Love the idea of not being part of someone else's wealth creation thou.


2. It would give younger workers more rapid advancement. As a result, the cycling of new ideas and innovations would be stimulated and increased.

New ideas and innovations that really help tend to come from well educated and/or highly experienced people in their field. Review the ages that Nobel prize winner made their breakthroughs. Many happened past 55. Shortening the length of time people work could easily be argued to reduce innovation.



3. People might actually stay in better health, due to the lowering of the impact of stress at middle and older ages. This offers a benefit to society as a whole in the form of lower health care expenses.

The loss of income involved with retirement is stressful. Further, the loss of daily activity that work provides many people would reduce health significantly, especially for those that don't stay active. I don't see a health benefit from early retirement.



4. People would be encouraged to save more at an earlier age to achieve retirement at 55. A new financial architecture would have to be created to do this effectively, which would create more jobs.

There are millions of ways for people to save for retirement now, we surely don't need a new way to do it. The problem is that people don't save for retirement. This is why the government implemented social security payments and takes money off your income to pay for it. Retiring early will only cause a much higher amount to be deducted from people to cover the extra years the government would pay benefits in.



5. Employers would benefit in that they would not have to push people out of their jobs in their 50s, and endure the fallout of such actions, (lawsuits, workplace violence, etc.)

Age discrimination is real and not allowed. Many people work well past the current retirement age and employers are not allowed to discriminate due to age. There will always be lawsuits no matter what 'retirement age' you set.



6. Grandparents who retired earlier would have more time to help their children and aging parents, without the added stress of the workplace. An improvement overall in the quality of life for several groups.

So forcing Grandparents to retire from work but sending them to unpaid work such as child care is good? If grandparents want to be with their family they will make those choices without being forced out of work.



7. You would have a large segment of the population on fixed incomes, which would stablize spending in the economy (less people dependent on wages)

More people living off government subsidies doesn't sound good to me. Sounds like even more low income people barely getting by that will need help if any economic problem happens in the future.



8. People could still be useful to society through volunteer work, mentoring, etc. It would strengthen the fabric of society.

I don't think forcing people out of work is a good way to increase volunteering in the community. I bet more retired people would watch more TV and fill Bingo halls but not impact volunteering nearly that much.


We would pay for this by getting people to save more aggressively, and a general flat tax to a national retirement fund. It could be a multitude of low impact taxes compounded , think a couple cents on the dollar, on financial transactions, travel, imports, etc. It CAN be achieved.

Did you just add a NEW TAX to pay for this all? Boo!

Obviously I don't like your early retirement idea. In fact Economists have studied the effects of changes in work hours, which is really what you're advocating just focused on people over 55. The studies don't provide optimism for any of the benefits you've mentioned. When considering huge changes in society 'common sense' doesn't usually figure out the best solution. You need a long education and years of experience to understand the complicated effects of government policy changes.



posted on Jan, 1 2015 @ 11:03 AM
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a reply to: infinityorder

Exactly. In the real world, we have term for social security. It is called a Ponzi scheme. Any business or person who tried to do what social security does would be in jail for fraud. The problem with social security is that most recipients don't put in nearly as much as they withdraw. Social security worked ok when it was just a small portion of the population withdrawing benefits supported by a larger number of workers. In addition, the life expectancy was pretty low as well. Now the math simply does not work.

Every person that contributes to social security would be much better off if they could keep their money and simply invest it in the market. They'd have much higher returns plus actually have an asset that could be passed on to their heirs.



posted on Jan, 1 2015 @ 11:03 AM
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originally posted by: openminded2011
I have taken in the current societies ills for the past few years, and I feel the retirement age should be lowered to 55, for the following reasons.

1. People should not spend ALL of their life working. The purpose of life is to enjoy life, not to be a widget for someone ELSES wealth creation.


The purpose of life is not to enjoy life, it's to survive. Enjoyment of life is a luxury, usually afforded to those who work hard for a long time, though too often from a quick and easy inheritance. Too many kids have it way too easy these days, but that's a-whole-nother topic.


2. It would give younger workers more rapid advancement. As a result, the cycling of new ideas and innovations would be stimulated and increased.


If we want more innovation, children are where it's at. They have untampered imaginations with no preconceived notions of how this world is supposed to work. If a 13 year old can achieve fusion in his garage, I can only imagine what this world would be like it kids were raised with a proper education rather than a half-ass-at-best ones they get from public schooling.


3. People might actually stay in better health, due to the lowering of the impact of stress at middle and older ages. This offers a benefit to society as a whole in the form of lower health care expenses.


A body in comfort grows weaker, not stronger. If you stop going to the gym, you don't get stronger because you lose the stresses of lifting weights. Stresses are what keep us alive. Sure, too much stress can break a person, but without stress we would all die very young.

I guess that's on the 'Pro' side for getting this passed though. Old people dying younger is something our government desperately wants.


6. Grandparents who retired earlier would have more time to help their children and aging parents, without the added stress of the workplace. An improvement overall in the quality of life for several groups.


It's up to every person to chose what they will do with their work-less lives. Yes, many will turn to their families. But many don't have families, or would just rather get drunk all day. If there's one thing that is certain, it's that free will cannot be predicted.


7. You would have a large segment of the population on fixed incomes, which would stablize spending in the economy (less people dependent on wages)


It sounds good on paper, but I've seen too man retirees who are frivolous with their spending to have faith in this idea.

If we want to fix our society, it is my firm belief that we need to focus more on our young, not our old.



posted on Jan, 1 2015 @ 11:09 AM
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a reply to: infinityorder

What part of Federal Insurance Contributions Act Tax is hard to understand?

Notice the word Insurance right there in the FICA part. It's the "I" in case you're missing it.


Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax /ˈfaɪkə/ is a United States federal payroll (or employment) tax[1] imposed on both employees and employers to fund Social Security and Medicare[2] —federal programs that provide benefits for retirees, the disabled, and children of deceased workers. The tax also provides funds to the health care system for institutions that provide healthcare for workers that do not have health insurance and can not afford healthcare treatment. Social Security benefits include old-age, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI); Medicare provides hospital insurance benefits for the elderly.


By your example then I assume that your automobile insurance doesn't cover passengers in your vehicle?



posted on Jan, 1 2015 @ 11:16 AM
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a reply to: Hefficide


Well to be fair, obamacare has the word affordable in it.....affordable care act...

But you are correct, social security is insurance. It is also whats keeping many elderly folks from starving and going without insurance. Lowering the age to 55 is not practical. Very few retired folks travel or do much of anything with ssi as their sole income.



posted on Jan, 1 2015 @ 11:23 AM
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The best thing we can do to help people is to start teaching them the basics of finance and life at an early age. There is simply no excuse for people graduating from high school and not having a basic understanding of our economic system and personal finance. Too many people simply make bad choices and then expect the more productive to pay for their mistakes.

Far too many people rather buy fancy cars, clothes, and other luxury items instead of investing and saving their money.

In addition, I'd like to see our government institute some very aggressive incentives for being responsible. Instead of rewarding irresponsibility like we do now, we need to be rewarding responsible behavior. I think all retirement contributions should be tax free regardless of income and contributions. We need to be encouraging people to save and the more they do to take care of themselves, the better.



posted on Jan, 1 2015 @ 11:48 AM
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55 is probably too young, even for those in physical jobs. 60 would be ideal.
I'm 60 now, and my body says stop working. I've been working physically all my life (Roofer) and the aches and pains are all coming to bare now. I am self employed.
At 50 the niggly things like sore elbows, back, knees etc started gradually and medical treatment allowed me to get through to 60, but now the least little sprain or cut turns into a major event.
Twice this year I have done my back in, and have somehow managed to continue, but have had had two periods of 3 weeks this year where I was unable to work on the job, I didn't claim Accident Compensation at 80% of my income during that period, as the short period off didn't make claiming worth the resulting higher premiums afterwards. ACC is a Govt Insurance scheme, but is still based on your claim history like any insurance scheme. It was a struggle to pay the bills due to no income.
I reckon by 65 I'll be a cripple.
Friends and family say get an easier job, but after 45 years in the trade its just too hard to change.
I started saving for retirement too late, now time is running out.
The problem also being that customers demand the cheapest prices to get their work done. If I allowed extra for my retirement plan then I wouldn't get any work, because younger guys will be charging less.

I must have paid at least $5,000,000 in taxes since I started working. Not to mention the taxes I have paid on petrol and cigarettes over the years, probably add another $250,000-$500,000.

Rather than change the retirement age upwards to fund more retirees, what should be happening is the Govt needs to start taking responsibility for the money I have given them year after year and stop wasting it on crap like Hip-hop tours, grants to Golfers , yacht races, bailing out corporate aluminium companies and banks, as just as a few examples.

The inability for Govts to pay for Retirement is due solely to mismanagement, it may be the same in the UK as NZ, waste waste waste.
Countries like Canada and Australia, and some of the Scandinavian and European countries have monster Retirement Funds worth multiple billions of dollars, they are smart and reinvesting the money in productive industries in their own and overseas countries, providing a return for their investors (the tax payers who paid into the Funds).

20 years ago they upped the retirement age here from 60 to 65, I was 40 at the time, and didn't even take notice as at that age you are invincible and it seemed a long way off. If I had realized what it was going to be like in the last 5 years of my working life I would have resisted the change as much as I could have ( voting accordingly) back then.

@Edumakated

Every person that contributes to social security would be much better off if they could keep their money and simply invest it in the market. They'd have much higher returns plus actually have an asset that could be passed on to their heirs.

I agree 100%, if I took that $500,000 I had paid in taxes over the years, I would likely have a fund of $3million by now to live off in retirement.
edit on 01u0015 by muzzy because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 3 2015 @ 07:18 AM
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a reply to: mysterioustranger

Yes, in the present sense, it is impossible to retire at 55. But if we start to create an infrastructure to ALLOW people to have the OPTION to retire at that age, a lot of people would. I have outlined clearly how it could be done, and why it should be done. Your position is obviously so weak you must resort to personal attacks to try to negate my assertion.



posted on Jan, 3 2015 @ 07:18 AM
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a reply to: scojak

Tell that to the one percent. Whatever happened to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? I guess its only for the upper classes, right?
edit on 3-1-2015 by openminded2011 because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 3 2015 @ 08:42 PM
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a reply to: openminded2011

My position is based in current reality. I am of retirement age and applying for the earliest S.S. this week in fact.

So, with my S.S. and another retirement from 20 yrs at a state university medical center...if I work at least 20 hrs part time a week...going forward...I can live like I am now...and work less. Certainly not any better nor easier...

I agree with you that reform absolutely needs to happen. I wonder how long before all the 55 ish early retirees at that point after such reform...would tap out equally where the majority of all citizens seems to be unemployed and retired all looking at each other???***

***Apologies to my removed post above! MS



posted on Jan, 6 2015 @ 06:33 PM
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a reply to: mysterioustranger

The main reason I have made the suggestion that we think about lowering the retirement age, is because with my own eyes, I have seen that companies really do not want older workers anymore. And younger workers entering the workforce are blissfully ignorant that a lot of them will be thrown under the bus when they hit their fifties. As a result, I feel people need to develop a mindset to, and be encouraged, to retire earlier. I would love to work until I am 80 but am realistic that no company in this day and age is going to let you hang around that long. So in lieu of this, I think it would be good if we adjust our society to adapt to this reality. People need to be encouraged to and given incentives to, SAVE earlier, so if it does happen to them they wont be destroyed by it. There are millions of people right now struggling for the decade between being let go and being able to retire, because they DIDN'T prepare, thinking they would have a cradle to grave job like their parents did. Many of them have lost everything, not the least which is their self of worth and self respect. This is a crime and we need to do something to fix it. Maybe it is idealistic thinking but I would like to live in a society that doesnt just discard people like widgets for better widgets. Until then, we need to get people prepared for the corporate axe.
edit on 6-1-2015 by openminded2011 because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 6 2015 @ 06:44 PM
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a reply to: Edumakated

I agree with you that we should have the option of keeping our money, but wall st is nothing more than a glorified casino. You wouldnt recomend someone go play all their retirement savings on blackjack or slots, why would you want them to gamble on the stock Market? Look at the financial crash, people like Bernie Madoff, etc. Do you really want your money in THAT environment? Not me, I would bury it in a jar before I would trust ONE of those weasels with it.



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