Should the Government Raise the Retirement Age?

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

The age of eligibility for full Social Security benefits is currently 67, but the cash reserves behind it are expected to run out by 2034. Those arguing “yes” to raising the retirement age say people these days are living longer, and it will lead to more economic growth. Those arguing “no” say not everyone is able to work longer and it’ll make large benefit cuts. Now we debate: Should the Government Raise the Retirement Age? Arguing Yes: Marc Goldwein, Senior Vice President and Senior Policy Director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget Arguing No: Teresa Ghilarducci, Irene and Bernard L Schwartz Professor of Economics and Policy Analysis at The New School Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan moderates Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody and welcome to Open to Debate.
0:03.9	I'm John Don Van.
0:05.0	So here's the good news, good in most ways anyway.
0:08.1	Americans are living a lot longer than they used to.
0:10.8	More than a decade longer these days than in 1960.
0:14.1	But that also creates a problem.
0:16.7	Social security.
0:17.7	The safety net program designed to help seniors survive financially once they stop working,
0:21.7	once they retire.
0:22.9	The problem is that the relative percentage of the population retiring keeps getting bigger
0:27.2	while the percentage of the population paying into the system is generally getting smaller.
0:32.5	Solid and somber predictions say that we are 8 to 10 years away from the Social Security
0:37.5	Trust Funds running out.
0:39.7	Now the system faced a similar crisis 40 years ago and one of the fixes used then was a
0:44.7	gradual raise in their retirement age from 65 back then to 67 today.
0:49.7	Should that be tried now?
0:51.2	It's got some history behind it, but it's also facing some strong pushback.
0:55.8	Listen to this for a taste of how much pushback there can be.
0:59.6	This is France where a move to raise the retirement age led to massive protests and strikes
1:05.8	earlier this year.
1:08.7	The how and the why of both sides of the argument are what we are about to explore here.
1:13.2	As we debate this question, should the government raise their retirement age?
	...

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