Dateline: Sarasota Florida 9:10 a.m. The movers have arrived. By the time you read this post, I will be at my temporary shelter (Mom’s). I will keep you posted on my daily progress, and my hope is to also get a word or two in regarding a public health topic.
For today, I choose the issue of extending the retirement age. This idea is gaining momentum around the world as countries find that they cannot support their citizens with these entitlement programs for as many years as the current retirement ages would involve. I fully intend to work well beyond the age of 65; in fact, I hope to be engaged in some type of work well into my 80s. I am, so far, a healthy individual and my expectations of myself are realistic. The expectation of states in my country is, however, laughable.
We have a serious obesity problem in the USA and because of it, we have a population rife with chronic diseases. This includes heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and even cancer (yes chronic). According to the CDC, a few years ago, one out of two, or HALF the country had at least one of these diseases. The numbers for multiple diseases are also staggering. So I ask you, HOW are you going to keep these persons on the work force past the age of 60?
We must get a handle on this, and I mean prevention too – because there will be no healthy and ready workforce to take their place according to the health status of the nation’s children. What I expect is that if workers are forced into longer service, they will end up on disability instead of retirement, but they will STILL cost companies and taxpayers money.
We have to think our solutions through a little bit more. Very often, our thought process stops without considering what the long-term effects of one step will be. Simply raising the age of retirement will shift the costs to another area, it will not lessen them.
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