The Social Security Act was passed in 1935.
The first benefits were paid out in 1937 to people aged 65 and older.
In order to be 65 years old in 1937 you had to have been born around 1872.
Now let’s look at how long you might have lived if you were born in 1872. Looking at only people who made it to the age of 20 (infant mortality was much higher back then) by 1892, those people lived an average of 40 more years. That meant that most people died at 60 years old — before the age of 65 and thus never drew from Social Security.
A person who just turned 20 today cannot draw full retirement until the age of 67. That 20 year old will live an average of 60 more years (according to the Social Security web site), thus potentially drawing Social Security up to the age of 80, or on average drawing on the system for 13 years.
Remember when Social Security was first enacted most people died five years before they were eligible for payments. Now the average person will draw payments for 13 years.
To me if we are going to have Social Security we should change the retirement age for younger people to reflect their longer life expectancy.
We deserve better
elpasospeak 
This is just a matter or common sense. To ensure solvency of the program the age must be raised to somewhere between 68 – 70. Our federal politicians have no stomach for butting heads with the elderly who are usually one issue voters. However the elderly do love their kids and grandkids and will consider the raising if Washington can also convince the elderly that they won’t continue to spend tax money like before. The elderly will be ok with raisning the SS and Medicare reforms if they can see tangible evidence of other segments of the government also being reformed. Like the budget and the tax code.
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Although I don’t disagree in principle with the idea of raising the retirement age, I think your position fails to consider or address a few harsh realities that are hurdles even for those who want to work longer. Firstly, many companies are forcing employees to retire in their late 50’s or early 60’s, depriving a lot of experience, hard-working individuals of the opportunity to continue working. Secondly, unemployment continues to be a huge issue even for highly motivated individuals, Lastly, there is considerable age discrimination in the workplace, which prevents a lot of experience, motivated individuals 50+ from obtaining jobs.
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