Reinventing the Wheel

Jonathan Weiler (8:49PM) link

One of the most frustrating aspects of the debate about social security is how often treatments of the issue demonstrate what seems like willful ignorance of the intensive ways in which the issues involved have already been addressed. So it goes in Sunday's New York Times, where Robin Toner and David Rosenbaum make the shocking discovery that expected increases in life expectancy need to be addressed in securing the finances of the program over the next seventy five years. They write:

"Americans turning 65 this year can expect to live, on average, until they are 83, four and a half years longer than the typical 65-year-old could expect in 1940. And government actuaries predict that American life spans will just keep growing. This demographic trend - by 2040, the average 65-year-old will live to about 85 - has major financial implications for Social Security and major political implications for the lawmakers now trying to overhaul the system."

Incredibly, in an article which is entirely devoted to the impact of life expectancy increases on social security's finances, the authors do not, one single time, mention the fact that the Social Security Trustees (and the Congressional Budget Office) factor life expectancy increases into their assessment of the program's long-term well-being.