Social Security & Medicare

from the 1950's to the 1970's, and the rise in the cost of resources has taken much of it back.

Just how much would it cost to group jobs in five quintiles? Most basic types of work could be easily quantified, and a number assigned that would stick with the job. It wouldn't be too tough to put together a full-benefits retirement age for the vast majority of workers. The "savings" goes from those with easier jobs to those with tougher ones, and inequality of condition often requires inequality of treatment of different groups of people. Nobody would be more than a year's worth of difference from a category they thought they deserved to be in, and for the 40% of the people with the toughest (often lowest-paying) jobs, they would see a benefit from the current age of 67.

I feel it represents a positive change that we could shape, or we could just deny that the system is headed for insolvency, and let future retirees deal with getting only two-thirds of a calculated benefit because we didn't do something meaningful now.