[extropy-chat] longevity and social security (was Extropian Scorecard)

[Damien Broderick]

At 12:07 PM 11/6/2004 -0800, Chris wrote:

>Is it possible that that's the nature of social security in Australia?

Yes. `The Australian retirement income system still differs radically from 
that in most other countries, in relying heavily on a means-tested income 
maintenance system, rather than on social insurance.'

http://www.natsem.canberra.edu.au/pubs/cp99/1999_006/cp1999_006.html

>In the US, Social Security is an entitlement for older people.  Doesn't 
>matter how much money they have, whether they are employed or not, how fit 
>or ill they are.

I guess this had never fully registered with me (I understand that a lot of 
well-heeled Americans regard it as beneath their dignity to accept the 
pension). But I did notice that the pension entitlement age has been 
creeping upward in the USA, Australia and elsewhere, although meeting 
resistance.

`A few countries, such as Sweden, have taken early steps to cover the cost 
of health care and retirement for their aging population. They have 
retooled retirement plans, tying benefits to contributions, raised 
retirement ages... In Italy, for example, people can retire at 57 and 
collect full benefits, if they have worked 35 years. The Italian government 
is pushing to raise the retirement age but faces opposition from unions....
in the 1980s, when the U.K. linked benefits to inflation, rather than to 
wage growth. The overhaul, carried out under Prime Minister Margaret 
Thatcher, also gradually raised the age at which women could get pensions 
to 65 by 2010. The nation had already done that for men.' 
(http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/retirement/2004-10-04-debt_x.htm )


Do note that Mike Lorrey and I were not talking about small increments in 
sickly life extension. The topic was *practical immortality*, or, more 
realistically, negligible senescence, perhaps with rejuvenation. This is 
not likely any day soon, and maybe the US Social Security system will have 
to adjust its terms of operation drastically before negligible senescence 
starts to kick in (if it ever does).

Damien Broderick