legal guarantee of his or her Social Security retirement benefits. Finally, current workers should have the choice of either joining a Social Security system that includes personal retirement accounts or remaining in the existing system and taking whatever benefit is available at the time that they retire. Some of our elected officials propose raising the eligibility age to get full Social Security benefits as a way of keeping money in the system. The retirement age is already slated to rise from 65 to 67 in the coming years, but they want to force us to work even longer. The rationale for this change is that, since life expectancy has increased, so should the length of the work life. As was noted earlier, since Social Security was enacted in 1935, life expectancy at age 65 has increased by 3 years for men and 6 years for women. Moreover, these life expectancies are projected to rise by a further 3 years for both men and women by 2070. Proponents of a more rapid rise and indexation of the normal retirement age argue that a portion of these increases in longevity should be matched by additional years in the workforce. Increasing the retirement age would ease the pressure on Social Security financing by offsetting some of the increase in the elderly dependency ratio caused by the aging of the population. The law already provides for an actuarial reduction in benefits of 20 percent for those who retire at age 62 ; this reduction will rise gradually to 30 percent with the scheduled increase in the normal retirement age to 67. Increasing the retirement age beyond 67 would reduce the age 62 benefits further still. Fixing the system now will cost less than waiting. Principles for privatizing part of the system are the following: the progress of the existing Social Security system should be preserved, reform should offer long-run solvency for the system, reform should improve equity between participants, should try to increase economic efficie...
