Now here's an idea I can get behind -OR- SIGN ME UP!

I have a new hero. Thom Hartmann is da man!

"One of the most powerful forms of stimulus we could apply to our economy right now would be to lower the current Social Security retirement age from the current 65-67 to 55, and increase the benefits back to where they were in inflation-adjusted 1960s dollars by raising them between 10 to 20 percent (so people could actually live, albeit modestly, on Social Security)."

Cash for Geezers
Go there read the whole thing!

The death rate more than doubles between the 45-55 age group and the 55-65 age group.
Why? Because the over 55ers are working themselves to death. If they're not trying to do a job better suited for younger stock, then they're worrying themselves to an early grave knowing they're gonna be screwed into working until they're 80 to even think about retiring.

Why? Mr. Hartmann explains it e x a c t l y:
"Of course, this is the exact opposite of American labor policy ever since the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush era. Reagan drove down wages by busting unions (which tighten a labor marketplace); declared an amnesty for millions of then-illegal immigrant workers to increase the supply of labor and depress wages (particularly whacking the carpenters and other construction trades unions); and began the process (completed in a big way by Bill Clinton with NAFTA and GATT/WTO) of dismantling tariffs, taxes, and laws that made it expensive or illegal to export American jobs."

Ask any Geezer when their thoughts of retirement changed and WHY.

Can we please get over the romance and bullshit of the Reagan era and face reality once again?

Age at Retirement	Average Age At Death
49.9	86
51.2	85.3
52.5	84.6
53.8	83.9
55.1	83.2
56.4	82.5
57.2	81.4
58.3	80
59.2	78.5
60.1	76.8
61	74.5
62.1	71.8
63.1	69.3
64.1	67.9
65.2	66.8

Sobering fuckin' numbers. Retire at 65 and your average life expectancy is 1.6 years.
For every year you work past age 65 through 70, the numbers go negative.

Talk about your Death Panels.