Originally Posted by
TransWorld
Was this for Social Security full benefits? It is already going up to 66.5. Or was it for Pilot mandatory retirement?
Back when Social Security was established, the ages 65 and 62 were selected. 65 was the average age of death for women. Men only made it to 62, on average. So the odds were you would never get any benefits.
In 1900, the average life expectancy for men in the US was 45.
That low number (45) is a bit misleading. A couple hundred years before that life expectancy was in the 30’s. But it’s not like everyone was keeling over at those ages. If you lived to adulthood you would probably live well past those ages. They had many “old” people back then who weren’t just randomly lucky. What brings those numbers down is the insane infant and child mortality rates. With so many dying prior to age five from all those diseases that we don’t have to worry about anymore, it skewed the number way down.