d then draw the conclusion: "If people live longer, they should work longer," but many elderly people are too tired, and to weak too work after a life span of just working. As the "baby-boom" generation begins retiring, around 2010, America will have a greater proportion of elderly citizens than it ever has. Approximately 24 million people over the age of 70 live in the United States today. By the year 2030, twice as many - 48 million - will be alive. And spending on the elderly now accounts for one-third of the federal budget (34%) and more than one-half of all federal domestic spending other than interest. As the group makes up more and more of the population, its visibility and political influence will probably intensify. The situation is caused by an increasing number of retiring Americans, the fact is that we are now living a great deal longer than did our grandparents. The makers of the Social Security system designed it with their present life spans in mind. When they created the program in 1935 and chose 65 as the retirement age, the average life expectancy of a child born in that year was only 61. Today, the average life expectancy is 76 years, and by 2030 it is expected to approach 80 years of age. As increasing numbers of Americans claim Social Security benefits and do so for a much longer period of time than was originally planned, and as fewer workers are available to support those transfer payments, the strain on the Social Security system threatens to rip the program apart. This dramatic rise in the number of elderly American citizens will stress the Social Security System as well as other organisations designed to assist the elderly. Experts project that soon after the year 2000, the federal government will have to take serious steps to insure the continuation of the Social Security program: reduction of payments, taxation of benefits, an increase in the age at which people become eligible, or some combination of these s...
