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World’s Richest Man Calls For Increasing Retirement Age To 70
Think Progress / News Report
Published: Thursday 14 June 2012
“Raising the retirement age from 65 to 70 is also a favorite suggestion of American conservatives, who cite the same reasons: an increased life expectancy and changing workforce”
Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim, who is the world’s richest manwith a fortune of $65 billion, believes that struggling countries need to raise their retirement age to 70 in order to help fix their finances:
Countries should have people work until they are older to reflect longer life expectancy rates, Slim reportedly said…Slim added the current retirement age was established “when jobs were more physical and people died at 60, but now we live until 85 or 90.”
El Universal reported one of the world’s savviest businessmen as saying: “We live in the knowledge society, so knowledge and experience should be valued. This is why a person’s work life could be increased.”
Raising the retirement age from 65 to 70 is also a favorite suggestion of American conservatives, who cite the same reasons: an increased life expectancy and changing workforce. But at least in America, it’s not true that life expectancy is increasing for everybody.
In fact, while life expectancy has gone up substantially for richer, white men, low-income workers have not seen the same gains. Low-income minority women have actually seen their life expectancy decrease in recent years. As the Center for Economic and Policy Research put it, “there has been a sharp rise in inequality in life expectancy by income over the last three decades that mirrors the growth in inequality in income.”
If current trends in inequality continue in the U.S., raising the retirement age to 70 would result in those born after 1973 having a shorter retirement than those born in 1912.
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ABOUT Pat Garofalo
Pat Garofalo is Economic Policy Editor for ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Pat’s work has also appeared in The Nation, U.S. News & World Report, The Guardian, the Washington Examiner, and In These Times. He has been a guest on MSNBC and Al-Jazeera television, as well as many radio shows. Pat graduated from Brandeis University, where he was the editor-in-chief of The Brandeis Hoot, Brandeis’ community newspaper, and worked for the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life.
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By Tara Culp- Ressler
23 comments on "World’s Richest Man Calls For Increasing Retirement Age To 70"
September 15, 2012 12:10pm
The feedback to Mr. "Slim" is sooooooooooooooooooooooo refreshing.
I worked hard to earn an engineering degree -- then I could not get a professional job after age 50.
The fat-heads of the world should clean their glasses and review the annual notices of productivity increases and reflect on what THAT means. I Slim doesn't get it, then he is not qualified to pass judgment.
Perhaps the 1% thinks that the answer to the problem is to have seniors dispense toilet paper in the restrooms -- as they do in Saudia Arabia, Spain and Portugal.
Think of all the bank clerks who were replaced by ATMs. Where are they employed now?
Where are all to laborers who assembled cars employed now?
Wake up and smell the coffee.
June 20, 2012 7:39pm
And Mr. Slim (not) who will employ all these older folks? My partner has been out of work almost 2 years and no one will hire him. Over fifty over weight like you and for you information a large number of the unemployed are over fifty.
June 15, 2012 4:01pm
There is never enough money for greedy scum like this.
June 15, 2012 1:52am
What people like this forget is much:
Most people work at mundane, brain numbing jobs.
The avg age in the US for males is 76.
Working at top end jobs where one makes million per year and billions over a lifetime is far, far different than driving a truck or selling insurance to make a living.
So let's get this straight. I work at a boring job my entire life and just get by, and then I'm expected to think my life was worth it with, on average, 6 years to enjoy my freedom--fuck you.
But the real problem with working people longer and longer is that those jobs are not available to those coming into the workforce.
I'll tell you what Slim. You guarantee everyone who wants a job a job, and we'll talk. If not, then tell people the truth: You don't want to pay for retirement through taxes because it's YOUR money, and if that means more unemployment for new job seekers and more suffering overall--tough shit bitches.
June 14, 2012 8:12pm
What he's really saying is the Corporations , including his, did not anticipate the increased percentage of uexpected extended life spans for those that retire early.
I know of {Big BLUE}retiree's who retired w/30 to 40 yrs in and are still alive at age 75 to 95. It's ok if you die off 5 yrs after you retire, but to live another 20+ years was something {Big BLUE} didn't expect. Especially with those old retirement plans which were like 75% of your income WAY BACK when. So they had many major changes to the retirement program to cut that back, I'll be lucky to get 12% of my income.
This is another reason why they are trying to go after unions, state & city employee's plans. It' s not about having a comfortable retirement for the people, it's about the FAT cats with golden parachutes, the stock owners & corporations $aving on retirement expenditures. In reality they are looting your retirement legally. For some who do not save, working till 67 to 70 will become a personal requirement.
Of note, those that retire at 62 tend to get healthier after retirement. Less work stress, more physical fun activity, family & friends, better eating habits helps improve your immune system. Your toxicity is reduced. You have time to HEAL and thus have a better well-balanced end of life. Alot of baby boomer retirees become political and community activists - fixing problems.
I also suspect that the youth coming up the technical job stream have been flouridated to the point that intelligence, critical thinking, ingenuity and initiative are harder to come by. They need root instructions. Look at the increase in administrative managers who lack the technical skill set.
As far as physical laborer's it should be mandatory retirement at 57, with a bonus back-to-school grant thrown in. They earned it!
June 14, 2012 8:03pm
These fat bastards whose hardest work is lifting their tiny penises to pee can spout off all they like about work and age. ANYBODY with an actual brain has already realised that there simply is not enough work in the world to employ all the employable adults in the world. This gap between the number of jobs in the world and the number of people in the world wanting to work can only get worse. The very concept of "working for a living" is outdated and unworkable. (pun intended)
June 14, 2012 7:51pm
Dear Richest Man in the World. Get f*cked, or better yet, have a stroke. Do you stupid, Ayn Rand f*cking, fat fascist bastards think your asses are going to be safe when you grind the people who make your fortunes possible have had enough of your soulless shit? Seeing your fat ass up against a wall would give me a warm glow of satisfaction. So keep it up boys. Tick *** tick *** tick...
June 14, 2012 7:14pm
Let's cut the foreplay. How about nobody retires, ever. We'll just work till we die, right there, on the job. No point in paying out all those retirement accounts or 401's, social security, pensions etc. Just bury us. You make more money. Is that what's stirring your drink, you fat f*ck?
June 14, 2012 2:36pm
I doubt many will feel bad for this guy when he drops from a heart attack.
June 14, 2012 5:44pm
LOL. Hardly Mr. Slim
June 14, 2012 1:16pm
I am lucky I took my retirement at 62 not getting the full amount. but i also have a pension and a Husbnd. So I can barley make it now. I feel for my children and grand kids that they won't even have a safety net if the republicans have their way. They have been working on it for years. Beleive me if you can retire do it at 62 at least you will get something back. Also get those crazy people out of office. We need the majority in the house too keep things we are intitled too. Obama is tring but he is blocked all the time by congress republicans. And the words richest man doesn't even need SS. Go too hell Mr. Slim fat cat.
June 14, 2012 1:06pm
This may all good and well....but there is such age discrimination over the age of 50. I am well educated and have had International Management Positions most of my life but in the last 3 years I have sent out over 1800 resumes and I have had only two phone interviews. When the prospective employer looks at my college it is simple to figure out I am in my 60's and it ends right there. So Mr. work until 70....I would like to, I am ready willing and able if given the opportunity. It seems that opportunity is for the young not the experienced. So it sounds good in principal but in reality it does not work.
June 20, 2012 7:42pm
amen
June 14, 2012 12:55pm
Well this story certainly helps illustrate how Slim got to be the "World's richest man" not that it's any great revelation of course.
June 14, 2012 12:38pm
What about those that are let go because of age? Who then cannot find a job - because of their age? Of Course its illegal - PROVE IT!!
Meanwhile, those not working lose everything they have saved and worked for all their lives - all because those rich bastards sit in their ivory towers and decide we should all work until age 70 - THEY can do it, not that they will, they can also afford to retire early - while still young enough to get some enjoyment out of life.
STUFF IT, SLIM!!!!
June 14, 2012 12:33pm
The world's richest man with the world's softest hands needs to do backbreaking stoop labor on a farm in sweltering heat for a couple of decades until his back aches so badly that he can't get a good night's sleep OR work in bitter cold lifting heavy objects all day long for several decades, and then he might understand why some people involved in strenuous physical labor can't work until 70 years off age.
June 14, 2012 12:11pm
It is always easy for the rich or congress to suggest raising the retirement age,when you have a job where you can sit on your backend all day and order others around to do your work it is still easy,The trouble with age is the mind still works but the body doesn't cooperate.I'm 67 and i have heart trouble,arthritis and asthma and many other older people have similar conditions,give us your job exploiting a bunch of peasants and i could easily work to 80 if they removed my heart also.
June 14, 2012 11:50am
... where the sun don't shine, Carlos ... where the sun don't shine. But keep talking ... every word that falls from the corrupt mouth of you and your ilk demonstrates that most ... not some ... but MOST of the people of the world would be better off ... by far ... if we were a Socialist world ...
June 14, 2012 11:41am
We should be seeking ways to lower the retirement age not raising it.
June 14, 2012 11:33am
Idea is that everyone who's not filthy rich gets to work as long as they live while at the same time paying into a system that makes payouts to everyone, regardless of wealth, and the ones making it into the later years are actually the wealthier individuals.
Brilliant!
Mr. Slim is one fat f*ck, indeed.
June 14, 2012 11:11am
The problem with making the retirement age 70 is that there are a whole lot of people who are barely able to work until 65 (for instance, construction workers, miners, and meat cutters); and there are people who are unemployed and unlikely to ever be employed again (lots of people of all classes who are over 50). I'm going to work until 71, because I am one of the lucky ones. But I know people who are barely hanging in there until 62, when they can claim partial Social Security benefits.
The world's richest men either have no clue -- or no heart.
June 14, 2012 11:52am
... OR BOTH ... !
June 14, 2012 10:49am
Correction: rich leeches like Mr. Slim "live until 85 or 90" but regular, real, working people rarely do...
Go f*ck yourself, Mr. Slim!