If you were born after 1959, your full retirement age is 67. So if you elect to start receiving benefits prior to that, you will receive a reduced benefit, based on your age at the start of receiving benefits. If you can afford to hold off until your full retirement age, you will have done very well with that "investment."

You're correct, if you get your eye poked out, you will probably lose your FAA medical. You can petition the FAA for reinstatement, but without an eye, you're probably SOOL. However, if you lose a leg, you could probably continue to fly, or an arm, or after a heart attack, etc, etc. None of these are discriminatory. They are logical, safety-related groundings, at least until you can demonstrate the ability to again hold your certificate; either your medical or your pilots license.

For you to say that if you live to be 60, you'll not be able to fly as well as you could before that age, is well, just STUPID. I suggest that you probably can't fly that well now, because you certainly can't think that well now. Have you ever seen Bob Hoover fly his Shrike Commander? He's been over 60 since the Mid-80's and he flys the **** out of anything with wings.

What you fail to realize is that as one gets older, all things being equal, what you lose in reaction time and motor skill, you make up for with experience, and having been there and done that. Maybe you wouldn't be able to effectively fly an F-16 or F-18 in combat. That does take fast reactions, but to say that you can't fly a Boeing or Airbus is ridiculous. These planes don't require lightening-fast reactions, they require intelligent, level-headed responses to situations that we train for, talk about and think about.

As for "accepting the laws of nature", I do. But to me that means that if I drop something, it's going to always fall to the floor.