People are living longer, but holding a well-paying job into your 60s and 70s is increasingly difficult. Life expectancy is longer. Employment expectancy—at least at good wages—may be shorter. That means retirees are likely to have a longer period of retirement to fund. If anything, that means Social Security needs to begin earlier, not later—and probably be increased, likely with stronger cost of living adjustments over the 20 to 30 years of a modern retirement. The loss of defined benefit pension plans—and their replacement with defined contribution plans like 401(k)s—has also not helped anyone but the upper middle class. Too many lower- and average-paid workers simply can't afford to save enough to build up a large enough retirement fund. Volatility in the stock market doesn't help. And individual accounts simply don't protect against various risks as well as group accounts. Raising the Social Security age—or cutting Social Security benefits—would be a disaster for Americans earning a median salary. But as we know from last week, Bret is mostly concerned about the struggles of couples making $400,000 or more.

People are living longer, but holding a well-paying job into your 60s and 70s is increasingly difficult. Life expectancy is longer. Employment expectancy—at least at good wages—may be shorter. That means retirees are likely to have a longer period of retirement to fund. If anything, that means Social Security needs to begin earlier, not later—and probably be increased, likely with stronger cost of living adjustments over the 20 to 30 years of a modern retirement. The loss of defined benefit pension plans—and their replacement with defined contribution plans like 401(k)s—has also not helped anyone but the upper middle class. Too many lower- and average-paid workers simply can't afford to save enough to build up a large enough retirement fund. Volatility in the stock market doesn't help. And individual accounts simply don't protect against various risks as well as group accounts. Raising the Social Security age—or cutting Social Security benefits—would be a disaster for Americans earning a median salary. But as we know from last week, Bret is mostly concerned about the struggles of couples making $400,000 or more.

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