Economists Underscore Risks of ‘Age Inflation’

While there has been growing talk of the aging of America, two National Bureau of Economic Research economists have now coined a term for it: “age inflation,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

The government and individuals alike will be in for a rude awakening, warn John Shoven and Gopi Shah Goda. As it stands, the number of people eligible for Social Security is going to increase by 20% by 2050, as Baby Boomers retire. But that number will actually be far higher, due to ever-increasing life expectancies.

When Social Security was created in 1935, people lived to age 77, on average. Today, that’s 84, the economists say.

“Age inflation and the lack of adjusting for it has quite a bit to do with the solvency problems of Social Security and Medicare,” the authors say.

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