General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Gross Overpopulation Is One Issue That Is Suicide For Any Politician To Address. We Are In Crisis. [View all]shanny
(6,709 posts)was an "average". Of all the people born, their average age at death was 47-48. The fact that a whole bunch of them died in infancy skewed that average. If you survived childhood, though, you were only a little less likely to live into your 60s/70s or even older than we are now.
FDR's bean counters took that into account when planning SS; look it up (the rightwing frames it the other way all the time--we're living so much longer!--doesn't make it true or make SS unsustainable in this day and age of increasing lifespans. The important statistic is how long the average person who reaches 65 lives after that).
Also too, only rich people are living substantially longer at this point; for lower class Americans, average life expectancy is declining.