I think that was Krugman’s line; can’t remember who I stole it from.
But in any case he’s got the facts on the ground posted today:
Raising the Medicare Age – NYTimes.com.
We Should Make Janitors Work Longer Because Lawyers Are Living Longer
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3 responses to “We Should Make Janitors Work Longer Because Lawyers Are Living Longer”
Looks to me like both are living longer. I can see the argument for keeping the retirement age the same for people in dangerous professions (mining, fishing, fire, etc.), but find it rather unconvincing in cases like janitors.
As usual Steve I love your graphics and numbers, great stuff. I have always thought it so ridiculous that guys like Rand Paul (he is going to make me hate his father soon “by association”) talk about extending the age people can take retirement, when he has a white collar job with high income. He acts like he is “Captain Courageous” stuffing this down people’s throats. What about age 65 nurses working in a metropolitan hospital lifting 300 pound patients out of their beds and on and off the toilet??? What about 65 year old truckdrivers lifting huge amounts daily, driving 16 hour days, trying to drive forklifts around busy distribution centers??? Guys like Rand Paul in fact have no idea what a real work day is, as he has had 85% of his life handed to him on a silver platter after smoking bongs and chasing pussy in college.
Hey Steve, I hope you’ll forgive me for being way off topic, but I thought you and your readers might get a kick out of this Donald Trump story in the Los Angeles Times. Have a good weekend.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0430-trump-vegas-20110430,0,88504.story
Two of the older working groups in the country are US Senators and US Supreme Court Justices. Twenty one of the 100 US Senators are currently aged 70 and older with an additional 37 aged 60 to 69. With the GOP driven slashing of Congressional pensions, many either cash in big as lobbyists or stay till they die can’t do it anymore.
Recent SCOTUS retirements/deaths have averaged 80 years of age.
Boehner wants to push the retirement age to 70. That would give the lower half of retirees a big 10 or 12 years and the well off half 16 and in a few years 20 years of deluxe retirement.
One other factor. As retirement ages are raised the number of open jobs, particularly in management and high skilled professions (lawyer, professor, doctor, dentist) would be fewer.