Zombie life expectancy arguments

And rising life expectancy does not necessarily mean people are able to do more work at older ages. Like, people with emphysema might live longer now, but spend the last several years of their lives without enough energy to do anything but sit or lie around. So they would contribute to rising life expectancy, but not be capable of working longer.

See the link below for the rest of the charts.

http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/zombie-life-expectancy-arguments/

November 14, 2012 at 8:00 am
Aaron Carroll

Paul Krugman wrote a nice piece yesterday on life expectancy, specifically on how it hasn’t been going up like “everyone” says. It’s a zombie idea; it won’t die.

I thought I’d add to his post by bringing back some of my favorite charts on the subject.

1) Life expectancy at 65 has not gone up nearly as much as life expectancy at birth. That’s what matters. That’s what determines how many years of Medicare or social security you might get:
[Note that life expenctancy at 65 has only gone up about 5 years.]




2) Life expectancy at 65 has not gone up for blacks as much as it has for whites.

3) Life expectancy at 65 has gone up much more for people in the top half of earners than in the bottom half.

4) While the richest 25% of Americans compare favorably to any other country, those in the bottom 50% of earners don’t. They will live fewer years after age 65 than the average person in most OECD countries. I don’t dispute that disparities might exist in other countries, but they definitely exist here. We’re not all living longer equally:

5) Speaking of which, there are a number of places in the country where life expectancy is dropping:

It’s important to think of all of these things when you claim we need to raise the retirement age because “we’re all living so much longer than we used to”.