Life Expectancy in the USA, Formula - you calculate from your present age, not your birth age.

[SC Maintenance]

Somehow common sense doesn’t pass muster. Making people retire later in life. One would think that as society advanced, people would have means to retire sooner.

This is a choice. Most people spend what they make instead of save.

My wife and I joke that without kids we would have retired already (we’re 50). Of course we then admit life would be very lonely.

I like my job. If things stay like this I will be in no rush to retire. Of course things can change.

 

[dubber09]

Well, the longer life expectancy is the higher retirement age will be as economy the way it's run cannot support paying retirees and SS recipients for many years.

 

[MrQuackers]

View attachment 137176

The Bo & Hope era was the best

 

[wemay]

Welp, better get those projects finished (my wife would say "started"). I only have a 25 years left.

 

[Allaneddie]

Calculate this and then you get hit by a bus.

 

[gfh77665]

10 years? Wow. Do you have a link? I didn't see that.

Female suicide, opiates, sugar, video games/TV, etc all bringing it down I'm sure.

Fentanol coming over the border, killing 100,000's.

 

[wpod]

Well, the longer life expectancy is the higher retirement age will be as economy the way it's run cannot support paying retirees and SS recipients for many years.

Nor constant wars and foreign aid.

 

[wpod]

Fentanol coming over the non existant border, killing 100,000's.

View attachment 233223

Fentanyl is mostly used by choice.

 

[javacontour]

Nor constant wars and foreign aid.

If you look at the numbers, those are relatively small compared to transfer payments like Social Security.

Social Security did not invest in anything outside of government bonds (effectively IOUs)

It did not account for lower labor participation rates combined with people living longer.

One could make an argument that at least SOME of the money should have been invested in a broad, market based index like the S&P500 to provide growth of the money outside of relying on taxpayers.

However, the program was designed when there was serious mistrust of the markets. (Not without good reason.)

I'd like to think we are better, but not perfect, so investing at least some of that money in a market based vehicle would be a good move.

But, it's the 3rd rail of politics and many people are low information and high emotion regarding the topic.

 

[supton]

Hmm, says I've got 30 years left--but my current plans have me working for 20 of them. That's no fun.

 

[gfh77665]

Fentanyl is mostly used by choice.

Lots of deaths of young people getting OD'ed when someone slips it in a drink or tells them its something else harmeless and they take it.

That also really skews the life expectancy tables.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I looked up two women, a mother and her daughter, in my family in the table. One was 68 in 2020 and the other 38. According to the table, on average, the mother can expect to live another 17.34 years (to age 85.34) and the daughter another 43.24 (to age 81.34). Given the advancement of modern medical care and the reduced death rate in car accidents and in other aspects of life, I'm really surprised to see the reduction in the expected life time of the daughter vs her mother.

But while I'm at it I should point out that these are just overall averages for the US. They do not account for race, your locality, your health, your life style, weather you do drugs or drink alcohol, weather you're married or not (yes, that has an influence), weather you engage in risky sports, how far you drive everyday, and a number of other factors. These numbers are only averages; and your expected lifespan could vary considerably.

Yes, but the daughter has 43 years to get through which is like running a gauntlet that includes car accidents etc. It’s not just a heath issues.The mother has already sailed past those issues.

 

[Astro14]

Nor constant wars and foreign aid.

Well, not to rain on the parade, but in FY 2023, direct foreign aid is $51 billion. The cost of overseas combat operations (which is what you meant by constant wars), is about $4 billion. We gave Ukraine about $35 billion.

The US budget is about $6 Trillion.

So, the total cost of everything about which you are complaining comes to roughly $90 billion, or right around 1.5% of the total budget.

You certainly aren’t going to balance a budget by addressing 1.5% of spending.

 

[javacontour]

Well, not to rain on the parade, but in FY 2023, direct foreign aid is $51 billion. The cost of overseas combat operations (which is what you meant by constant wars), is about $4 billion. We gave Ukraine about $35 billion.

The US budget is about $6 Trillion.

So, the total cost of everything about which you are complaining comes to roughly $90 billion, or right around 1.5% of the total budget.

You certainly aren’t going to balance a budget by addressing 1.5% of spending.

Yes!

IIRC, Defense and transfer payments (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) are about 85% of the Federal Budget. Maybe smaller as paying just interest on the debt is approaching 8-10% IIRC.

And that's about as far as I dare go before running afoul of the politics is verboten rules here.

I will say that until voters take the time to truly understand the problem, it will not be resolved in the favor of the voter.

Politicians (at all points on the spectrum) will be political and that is the nature of their game.

Let's be better than that here on BITOG