To Raise the Retirement Age from 65 to 72 in the US

Mr. President,

We, the undersigned, do hereby ask you to adopt raising the age of mandatory retirement in the US from 65 to 72 before the end of your term of President. The current retirement age puts undo stress on our ecomony while over-taxing the working class of Americans.

As you know, the retirement age was a stop-gap measure used during the Great Depression to solve a great immediate economic crisis. At the time, older Americans were working until they died, often holding mid-level positions in companies for decades. As the result of the end of World War I baby-boom, the percentage of entry-level-age Americans was growing to an ever increasing portion of the population. Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of entry-level positions for these Americans to work in. By creating the retirement age (as part of a larger jobs plan that included the Tennessee Valley Authority), many mid-level position opened up creating opportunities for promotion and eventually, entry-level jobs. The retirement age of 65 was created to allow older Americans with an opprotunity to enjoy the last 2 or 3 years of thier life without working; the average lifespan at the time was 67 years.

Our current ecomony is nearly the exact opposite of what it was in the Great Depression. Today, the percentage of older Americans in our population is growing at an alraming rate. Additionally, Americans are living longer. Instead of Americans being on Social Security for 2 years, the average retiree is now in the system for 7 years. The unfortunate result is that there are less people paying into the system and more people getting checks.

The basic flaw of the system is that the number of years Americans live after retirement has grown greatly. To fix the system, as part of an overarching plan including changes in how we pay for Social Security, we must increase the retirement age. Sometimes the best plan is the simplest.