"Al Reid" wrote in message
...
If I am not mistaken, the average life expectancy was 62 when the original
eligibility was set at 65. I could be wrong, though.

The average life expectancy is not the average age that a person over 50
dies at. It is an average age that people live overall, which includes death
of childhood diseases. If you think of it an average age of death would have
to include a whole bunch of people of all ages (down to newborns) to come up
with an average. These children did not contribute to the S/S.

People have always lived long lives if they survived childhood, childbirth
or workplace accidents. This brings to mind a headstone I saw in my town.
The person was born in 1799 and died in 1901 -- 101 years old. A good old
life, especially for the age, imagine the person lived through the entire
19th century!


--
Al Reid

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you
know
for sure that just ain't so." --- Mark Twain

"Fletis Humplebacker" ! wrote in message
...

"Charlie Self"
Rich Chamberlain writes:

Regardless of what that article says about the growth of the economy,
the real reason for the crisis is the number of workers per retiree.
Back in the 30s, it was close to 300 workers paying for the SS of one
retiree. Today, it's at 3 and heading to 2 with a bullet.

And most of the money paid in has been stolen. Whoops. Pols don't
steal. They
simply take and use for other purposes.

By the way, when in the '30s was it 300 to 1?

That tells me one thing - I need to pump up my 401k and other
savings,
because I'm not counting on SS.

SS was never intended, or, rather, was not originally intended, as a
complete
retirement program. It was to be a supplement for those who couldn't
make
enough money to save on their own, but was never intended to be all
the income
anyone had. Of course, now it often is and in some areas, for some
people, it
is more than adequate.


Also, it was designed to be distributed to the recipient for maybe 5
years.
People are living much longer these days.