These improvements in life expectancy, and a decline in birth rates, have put us on a path of rapid declines in the number of employed workers for every retired American. In 1960 the ratio was 4.5 to 1. Today it is 3.3 to 1. In little more than 30 years time it will be just 2 to 1, and falling. Rising dependency is an economic challenge for the nation for which we have to save.
Longer retirement is an economic challenge for individuals for which they have to prepare.
That is what why the President has proposed that we put Social Security first in deciding how our surpluses will be used. We must do it because it is the right way to ensure that the surpluses are not washed away as soon as they as they appear, but used to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow. First It is too early for predictions or conditions. But the debate we have ahead of us will not be taking place in a vacuum. These past years there has been an enormous amount of careful study of this issue, by thoughtful people on both sides of the Congressional aisle and every part of the academy and broader policy community.