GOP op ed at CNN:Work till you die, die when you're supposed to,give the rich more tax breaks,

[sufrommich]

government workers should not be middle class americans:

First, why do we let people retire too early and then expect them to live so long without working? In 1910, the average retirement age in the United States was 74. In 2002, however, the average retirement age was 62. Average life expectancy in 1910 was around 55, while in 2002 it was 77.

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Throughout most of our nation's history, people were expected to work regardless of their age. Only over the last several decades has that changed.

Now it is assumed even if you are completely able-bodied and able-minded, you don't need to work and indeed you shouldn't be required to do so if you reach a certain age and certain number of years at one job. But that is crazy. We can't afford it. As people live longer, they should work longer, be productive longer, pay taxes longer, and be full participants in our nation's economy longer.

Second, why do most Americans spend so much of their health care expenditures in the last three months of their life? Fully 27 percent of Medicare is devoted to spending on end-of-life health (in other words, health care that doesn't work), according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to a Mayo Clinic study, "Older people with chronic illnesses have the highest rates of intensive-care-unit (ICU) use at the end of their lives. The country's aging population has an increased prevalence of chronic diseases, signaling that ICUs may treat more and more people in the years ahead. Intensive care costs comprise 30 to 40 percent of hospital spending and may continue to grow as the population ages."

In other words, we are paying a lot of money for health care that ends up with the patient dead. If we want to keep from going bankrupt, we have to have a more rational way to look at end-of-life care.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/16/feehery.budget.questions/index.html

[peacebird]

1. if no one ever retired then there would not be enough jobs for young people entering the workforce

Also - if people in their 60s don't leave the workforce there really isn't any way for younger workers to move up into management positions.

Silly, cruel, arrogant (probably rich) person attempting to justify keeping working class people down. I am pretty sure the author travels extensively and lives quite well. And does not do PHYSICAL labor. Even standing all day at a check out counter is hard work for elders.

[depakid]

2. You pretty much called it

It's always impressive how people like the author have so little in the way of comprehensive understanding.

Like most so called "conservatives" they'll never get it, either unless some misfortune fall on them personally. Then they'rve astonishing quick to convert.

[sufrommich]

3. What bothers me is that the republicans,who do not go a day

without shouting USA WE'RE NUMBER 1! are making the point that we should lower our expectations dramatically, retirement is for sissies, health care issues could be solved if old people would just die a little more economically than they do right now and government workers (union jobs) should not expect a middle class lifestyle. Why is there never anyone with a public voice on CNN questioning why we should settle for anything like this in this country.What is visionary about that?

[global1]

5. Why Do You Think The Older Worker Is Let Go Before The Younger?......

Makes too much money in comparison for what they can get a younger person to work at. And then other companies won't hire the older person. So yeah - many are being retired early - and not by their choice. Now we also have the issue that these older workers retirement monies have been plundered by the pirates in the financial community. They can't even rely on their house equity because houses lost value. They don't have a job. Don't have enough money to retire on without living at the poverty level. Don't have enough money to buy health insurance they don't have anymore because they don't have a job. What is the older American worker or in this case former worker supposed to do?

I always thought that Dr.Kevorkian was a government plant to push the envelope with respect to assisted suicide. I thought he was put out there to get some people thinking that that was an option for them. I think there were 'think tanks' that looked into the future - Agewave - and said what are we going to do with all these old people. How are we going to pay them Social Security? Keep them alive - healthcare? jobs? etc.

So you push the issue of people ending their lives when they become non-useful to the cause.

Soylent Green - remember the scene where Edward G. Robinson goes to what looks like a supermarket. Gets interviewed by people in what look like white snuggies - and is then place on a roll away gurney, in a room with beautiful colors, music and given a drink to help him out of this world.

Is this what we are coming to?

[Skinner]

4. Question for DU mathematicians:

If the average life expectancy was 55, was it possible for the average retirement age to be 74?

Seems to me that it is impossible for the average retirement age to be higher than the average life expectancy. :shrug:

[SharonAnn]

6. I don't think they considered death as "retirement". They just removed them from

the sample population.

But, I agree, it doesn't make sense.

[Beaverhausen]

8. Not only that, but 27% of medicare is spent in the last 3 weeks of life

well, duh! Wouldn't one assume you would spend money trying to get better if you have say, a heart attack or stroke?

[sufrommich]

10. Apparently, the republicans want us to "opt out" for the

good of the nation once we get old.Anything less is just a waste of money.

[sufrommich]

9. "Retirees" in 1910 made up 1% of the population.

"In 1910, life expectancy at birth was only 50 years. Retirement was only for the very old, and the average age of retirement from the work force was 74 years. Retirees in 1910 had surpassed the average life expectancy of a newborn by 24 years before they quit working! Life expectancies were short because so many people died in childhood or at very young ages. The hardy souls who lived through childhood illnesses and injuries actually could live a fairly long time, so a 74 year old retiree in 1910 might still live another 7 years after retirement. Very few people made it to that age, however, and those people who were "retirement age" or older in 1910 represented only about 1% of the total population."

http://www.elderweb.com/home/node/1856

[NNN0LHI]

7. I seen a woman cleaning tables at a McDonald's today she appeared to be about a hundred

Yea thats the ticket.

The golden years spent at the golden arches.

Don

[Supersedeas]

11. pushing the eligibility age for Social Security to 70, 75, 80, 85....90

[sufrommich]

12. I believe they won't rest until the push the age for social

security to "never".