Agreed...the point I made was once unemployed and trying to get re-employed, it becomes very difficult if one is 60 and fat....particularly in a weak job market.Agreed.Right now, today, the SS is solvent. It is not in debt it is in surplus. Maybe that won't last forever but I think the reason so many programs, other then retirement, that is a drain on the system, were added is because there is a large nest egg of money and politicians can't stand just having money sit around.
The truth is that SS payment isn't exactly enough for a person to live on now, at least comfortably. So if someone wants to retire at 62 and collect SS they had better have some back up. Or live dirt poor. Add to that the requirement to buy medical insurance until they are 65 and retirement doesn't looks so easy before 65 at least.
You're making the assumption that people have an option. That isn't necessarily true. That sure isn't what we saw in the last decade. Nobody says, well, shucks, I am going to rely on social security. We didn't see that either. We saw rents skyrocket, we saw people forced into retirement, we saw pensions raided at earlier times and then try to blame the people that were to collect.
I am making no assumptions. I think I agree with you that the body does wear out on a time table that I do not see changing all that much. But that still leaves the truth that SS ALONE is not enough to live comfortably.
The body wears out? They will not hire them. They are forced into retirement.
From 2011:
Unemployment has hit baby-boomers especially hard. For those over 55, the jobless rate has doubled since the recession began, to 6.8 percent. In real terms, that's more than 2 million people, many of whom once had good-paying, white-collar jobs.
And the older you are when you lose a job, the harder it is to find a new one, CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts reports.
If effort and optimism were gold, Eric Garner would be a rich man.
"I'm the busiest unemployed guy I know," Garner said. "I mean, I work a 12-hour day. I just want to get paid for it."
For the past year, Garner's full time job has been looking for a job. He's out of bed by 6 a.m., searching the web, emailing resumes by 6:15.
He has 50 different resumes, he says, because he customizes the resume that he sends out for each employer.
Garner was laid off from a financial services firm in 2010. Since then he's had a few bites, a few interviews, but still no offers.
How is it possible that someone who is college educated, working on a masters degree, with 32 years of work experience can't find a job?
For unemployed over 50 jobs especially scarce - CBS News
2014:
Over 50 working against time in America s harsh job market Star Tribune
Why is the baby boom retiring early in huge numbers, when many have little retirement savings? I suspect many gave up trying to find a good paying job. If the economy was humming, would they be retiring?
And yes America has a health problem, with many of us obese. It is tough to get a job when you are 60 and fat, particularly in a weak job market.
Obesity? Really? They were forced into retirement. Forced. Those that are older have, usually, built up vacation days and are paid more. Those were the first to get kicked.