Letters to the Editor

Retired a third of our adult lives

Author: Gene Steuerle

Published: May 29, 2005

Larry Wilson of Huxley is to be commended for his concern about the plight of Social Security (May 22 letter). However, he did a disservice to Register readers by misquoting me.

As I told the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, and the Register reported, people are retiring for about a third of their adult lives -not, as Wilson misstates, their entire lives.

The average retirement age, says the Social Security Administration, is 64 for men and women (http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/IncRetAge.html). According to the National Center for Health Statistics (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus04trend.pdf#027), a person living to 65 today can expect on average to live another 18 years (more for women, less for men), or to 83. Thus, the 19 years of retirement is close to a third of the average 62-year life-span as an adult.

-C. Eugene Steuerle, senior fellow, the Urban Institute, Washington, D.C.