The Social Security retirement age: Who’s really living longer?

[customerserviceguy]

1. One of the things I've advocated here

is a sliding scale of retirement ages. It wouldn't be that difficult to use worker's comp records to figure out which 20% of the jobs are the most physically stressful, and every fifth after that.

Let the workers in that toughest 20% retire with full benefits at 65, and have the retirement age for full benefits be 69 for the last quintile, with the other three in between. Peg the Medicare age to the Social Security retirement age, and you'll have a symmetry.

As we evolve from a society of difficult jobs into service-economy workers who have much less stress than the folks who were the original retirees at the dawn of Social Security, we raise the average retirement age gradually and equitably. Pencil-pushers like me always have extra ways and means of shoving a bit more into our retirement accounts than hotel maids and dock workers.