Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro is suffering a backlash for saying that Americans should continue working past the official retirement age and possibly until death.
During Tuesday’s episode of his podcast, Shapiro said it is “totally crazy” and “insane” that the retirement age is still set at 65 in the U.S.
He pointed out that President Joe Biden is running for re-election at 81.
“Joe Biden has technically been eligible for Social Security and Medicare for 16 years, and he wants to continue in office until he is 86, which is 19 years past when he would be eligible for retirement,” Shapiro said.
“No one in the United States should be retiring at 65 years old,” he continued. “Frankly, I think retirement itself is a stupid idea unless you have some sort of health problem.
“Everybody that I know who is elderly who has retired is dead within five years. And if you talk to people who are elderly and they lose their purpose in life by losing their job and they stop working, things go to hell in a handbasket real quick.”
Shapiro went on to note that when Social Security was implemented in 1935, the average American only lived to about 63. But now the average life expectancy is almost 80, so a retirement age of 65 is “crazy talk” and “not fiscally sustainable,” he insisted.
Do you agree with Shapiro?
“I fail to see how a country in which our entire leadership class is 80-plus is telling you that we should have a retirement age of 65. It makes no sense at all,” Shapiro concluded.
Many on social media did not take kindly to his comments.
X user David Giglio, for instance, sarcastically summarized Shapiro’s argument: “Everyone should work until they drop dead!”
Everyone should work until they drop dead!
Ben Shapiro is an idiot.
Easy to say for a guy whose job is to sit in a chair & talk for an hours a day to say.
In an ideal world people should be able to retire while they are still young enough to live life to the fullest.
— David Giglio (@DavidGiglioCA) March 12, 2024
Another conservative commentator blasted Shapiro for supporting foreign wars but advocating to take benefits away from Americans.
Reminder that Ben Shapiro advocated for every war in the Middle East.
When the rich kids of DC say the 🇺🇸 can’t afford foreign aid and foreign wars, then let’s talk about making grandma starve.
Until then, no thanks! https://t.co/Nr36ZRNSe0
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 12, 2024
Shapiro also took heat from an X user who said he just “talks for a living.”
“Say this from a coal mine. Say it from a patrol car. Say it from a military base or on deployment,” the user said. “Say that at 65 you should just keep plugging along — and you’ll be laughed out of the room.”
*says guy who talks for a living*
Say this from a coal mine. Say it from a patrol car. Say it from a military base or on deployment. Say this in so many industries – say that at 65 you should just keep plugging along – and you’ll be laughed out of the room.— Joshua Hartley (@JHartley2) March 12, 2024
On Wednesday, Shapiro responded to the criticism on his podcast and in a post on X.
“1. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme that is 100% going to bankrupt the country,” he wrote.
2. It’s a free country — if you have the money to retire and you want to, that’s your choice. But work is a large part of a fulfilling and purposeful life, and retirement as we know it today — sending the elderly out to pasture to wither away — is not how we were created to live.”
Yesterday, I apparently broke the internet with the hot and spicy subject of….Social Security and retirement.
Today I broke down what are actually two separate arguments that many are incorrectly conflating:
1. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme that is 100% going to bankrupt… pic.twitter.com/iQoasIjjH8
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 13, 2024
The fact is, Shapiro did his discussion of retirement no good at all by using words like “crazy,” “insane” and “stupid.”
It also didn’t help that he didn’t seem to realize that the retirement age is not 65 for people his age. Starting way back in 1983, the retirement age was gradually increased to 67 for those born in 1960 or later.
The case can be made that the retirement age should be raised further. But Shapiro’s insensitive bombast totally defeated any chance of a dispassionate, logical argument.
