Longer Life Spans and Social Security
There are many variables that make up the statistic of average life span. Generally when dealing with averages you are taking in to account a large group of people that covers many different demographics, however, the nature of anonymity means that all identity is stripped away in order to reach the final number. It is true that life spans are increasing and that this is affecting Social Security, but when the numbers are broken down it is discovered that the demographic that Social Security is meant to help is making up the wrong end of the bell curve. Richer people are living longer and poorer people have seen no marked increase and in some cases have seen a decrease in longevity. This brings up the question of how affective certain proposals such as raising the full retirement age will be. For more information on this topic, visit this article by Kathleen Romig with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.