Americans can start receiving their Social Security retirement benefit as early as age 62. But should they?
According to lawyer and political commentator Ben Shapiro on an episode of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” it’s “insane” that the U.S. hasn’t raised the official retirement age.
“[President] Joe Biden has technically been eligible for Social Security and Medicare for 16 years, and he wants to continue in office until he is 86, which is 19 years past when you would be eligible for retirement,” Shapiro says.
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Rather than raise the retirement age, however, Biden’s 2025 budget calls for raising taxes on high-earners to pay for Social Security and Medicare (and prevent a shortfall). But Shapiro says there aren’t enough high-income taxpayers for that.
“Frankly, I think retirement itself is a stupid idea unless you have some sort of health problem,” he says, adding that, once you lose your purpose in life, “things go to hell in a handbasket real quick.”
But aside from that, Shapiro argues that raising the retirement age makes sense on a fiscal level. Is he right?
Should the retirement age be raised?
According to Shapiro, there’s a straightforward reason the retirement age should be raised: average life expectancy has increased in the last few decades.
Back in 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt established 65 as the “official” retirement age under the newly established Social Security Act. At the time, the average life expectancy in the U.S. was 60.7 years — so, the average American would have been lucky to even reach retirement.
Today, the average life expectancy is closer to 80 — with 76.4 years being the national average.
While you can start receiving your Social Security retirement benefit as of 62, you won’t receive your full benefit until you reach your “full retirement age,” as defined by the Social Security Administration (SSA). You can start receiving Medicare at age 65.
However, the idea that you can work for 45 years and then receive Social Security benefits sufficient enough to support yourself for another 20-plus years is “not fiscally sustainable,” Shapiro believes.