Via Democracy Now!:
GOP Considers Raising Retirement Age to 69
On Capitol Hill, Republicans are considering raising the retirement age to 69 for people who want to receive full Social Security benefits. Under current law, the age for retiring with full benefits is 65 years and six months. It is rising gradually until it reaches 67 for individuals born in 1960 or later. Sen. Charles Grassley — the Republican chair of the Senate Finance Committee — reportedly outlined the proposal last week for fellow Republicans.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans are considering raising the retirement age to 69 for people who want to receive full Social Security benefits. Under current law, the age for retiring with full benefits is 65 years and six months. It is rising gradually until it reaches 67 for individuals born in 1960 or later. Sen. Charles Grassley — the Republican chair of the Senate Finance Committee — reportedly outlined the proposal last week for fellow Republicans.
Sen. Grassley, ever tried getting a job when you’re over 50? Oh well, that’s the plan, isn’t it. Get the unemployed and unemployable — those who need it most — to retire early and draw less-than-full benefits.
My husband is going through that right now. His small software company was swallowed up/taken over by a HUGE company here in the Research Triangle area. He used to love his job and now he can barely drag himself there in the morning.
He’s a highly educated and experienced software developer/ manager but he just turned 51 and has gotten some discouraging comments about looking for another job in his field.
Can you imagine being laid off from your job at the age of 60 and having to find another job for 9 years!? I find it heartbreaking to go to McDonalds or the local grocery store and seeing people in their 70’s flipping burgers or working a cash register.
It’s nuts. When you have over 100 people applying for each job, it’s too easy for employers to hire younger workers. For one thing, they’re typically less of a drain on health insurance programs.
Younger workers, in general, draw lower salaries too.
One of my co-workers, who was in her late 50s, was laid off from a tech job in October 2003. It took her 18 months and a move to find a new job that didn’t pay nearly what she made before.
The problem is especially bad in fields like software, where it can be difficult to keep up with changes, and where there is a very real bias toward younger workers.
And I feel so badly for your husband. Tell him to vent here. We’ll listen.
If social security is the 3rd rail of American politics, what is this #@$&%$? The Repugs are playing with fire. And I guess that Shady Pines will have to start offering resume classes.
Grassley is probably Rich. Getting jobs after 50 will be no problem for HIM.. so why wouldn’t it be a problem for the rest of us?
:/
(terminating sarcasm code)
EEP that was supposed to be would.. please translate that wouldn’t to a would.
Senilese.. i mean Synielese…
^_^ (wish you could edit these things)
20 years. They were bought out by another company (surprise) and they shut his company down. His pension was completely lost but the employees sued and were able to recover part of their pension plan but it was only 1/4 of what they were counting on. My father was able to get another job in sales in the same industry at the age of 55 but it was very difficult. He ended up forming his own company and did very well until two of his salesman started diverting customers to another business they created without my father’s knowledge. It was extremely stressful and he ended up dying of a brain tumour just months after he found out. It was heartbreaking to see my parents go from a great standard of living (nice home, lots of vacation time, little stress) to this in just a short period of time.
That’s awful!
I’d like to see an initative, within the Democratic party and associated organizations, to hire older folks like your dad when possible. They have the proper skills, and often a proven record far beyond what a 23yr old (like myself) can produce. Plus, their overall wisdom (in many cases) would benefit the progressive agenda.
The last time I was unemployed-yes, it’s getting to be old hat-the first orientation meeting was full of people of all ages, from late teens to close to retirement. After seven weeks we had to drag to another meeting, surprise, the only people missing from that one were people under forty. And most of us were female. I’m hanging on to the job I’ve got now like grim death, one more bout of unemployment and it’s back to McDs.
My heart goes out to anyone stuck looking for work at this time, and to mature workers especially.
I just don’t get it. These are the same people, who as CEOs, don’t hire older workers. And yet, they come up with this stupidly dangerous idea.
Thank you susan for posting this! Sweet Jesus in june, – I was born in ’62 and my retirnement age is now 67. Even if I manage to hold onto my job until then, what if my “mental faculties” don’t hold out as well? A select few people maybe do stay sharp as a tack until their 80’s. But what about the rest of us….
would be terrible, especially those who do hard physical labor. But I suppose someone working in a nail salon might want to give it a break, too, after 65 or 62. I saw in the NY Times that some in Congress with working class roots were already commenting on this.
The only way that this would be remotely fair is if they broke the workforce into two groups, those that do what Marx called mental work, and those that do not. But that would still leave the problem of the “mental work proletariat” who lost their jobs. Besides how could you make such a split: it would be completely unworkable.
I don’t think raising it 2 more years from 67 to 69 is that drastic. Those people are in their 30s and have 30 years to save and prepare to cover those extra few years if they end up out of work early.
Those who can save for it must have some foresight. Those who can’t possibly save are those who are already working crappy jobs, so they will work crappy jobs for two more years. Those who are unable to work due to age related disability will be on disability. There will be some unlucky able bodied workers who can’t find work and will have to take the early reduced payments, but not everyone. (An aside- some are concerned that health insurance costs will keep older people from finding work, but I think that the issue of employer based vs national health care will be addressed before 30 years go by. The tipping point will be when one half of the country is uninsured, and that will be sooner than you think.)
I would have to agree to bringing the SS program back in line with how it was started- insurance for the most vulnerable at a time when they are unable to work. More people are living much longer now than in the 1930s, and are healthier doing it. The program was not designed to fully support so many people for 20 years of retirement.
Since this is just a continuation of the rising age limit already in effect, it is much more politically palatable than other things like means testing, raising the cap, or cutting benefits across the board 25%. Also, since this doesn’t muck about with the fundamentals of the program, it doesn’t get any closer to the dismantling of SS that so many people are afraid of setting in motion. I think there will be a mental block at age 70 that will be hard to get past, politically. It will remain there for a long, long time.
Raising the cap is much more palatable. People who make over 90K per year are much more able to shoulder the burden than people making 15-20K at menial jobs having to do physical labor at ages 67 & 68.
The Republicans really have no empathy for what real working and middle class people have to suffer in order to support themselves and their families.
They are, basically, vampires–living off of everyone else’s blood.
Those gutless wimps in the GOP! Let’s get serious. Let’s raise the retirement age to 89. Then Social Security will finally be solvent forever, and we can raid the trust fund in perpetuity for stuff that really matters: pumping money into Halliburton and weaponizing space all the way the Neutral Zone.
The rnc, dubya, and the media who enable them want grandpa and grandma to keep working so that the top 1% can keep their tax cuts.